Insurance system related to a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9390451-B1
Application number	US-201414163761-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 24, 2014
Priority date	Jan 24, 2014
Publication date	Jul 12, 2016
Grant date	Jul 12, 2016

Abstract

System and methods are disclosed for determining, through vehicle-to-vehicle communication, whether vehicles are involved in autonomous droning. Vehicle driving data and other information may be used to calculate a autonomous droning reward amount. In addition, vehicle involved in a drafting relationship in addition to, or apart from, an autonomous droning relationship may be financially rewarded. Moreover, aspects of the disclosure related to determining ruminative rewards and/or aspects of vehicle insurance procurement/underwriting.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, via a driving analysis computing device comprising a processing unit, a clock, and a memory unit, a first vehicle operational data collected by a first vehicle data acquiring component, wherein the first vehicle operational data comprises driving data collected from a first vehicle engaged in an autonomous droning relationship with at least a second vehicle, wherein the first vehicle is a lead vehicle and the second vehicle is a drone vehicle and wherein the first vehicle transmits vehicle control commands to the second vehicle which cause the second vehicle to automate driving based on driving of the first vehicle, wherein the processing unit is programmed to:
calculate an amount of time the first vehicle transmits vehicle control commands to the second vehicle; and
transmit the amount of time and at least a portion of the first vehicle operational data to a server comprising a second processing unit and a second memory unit;
determining, via the second processing unit of the server, a characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship, wherein the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship comprises the amount of time the first vehicle is the lead vehicle;
displaying a visual representation of the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship on a display associated with the first vehicle;
determining a property of a first insurance policy of the first vehicle using the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship; and
adjusting the first insurance policy based on the property.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the property of the first insurance policy comprises at least one of a premium, a deductible, a coverage term, and a coverage amount.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising determining an autonomous droning insurance factor using at least one of the first vehicle operational data and the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship and determine the property of the first insurance policy using the autonomous droning insurance factor.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the autonomous droning insurance factor comprises a ratio of an amount of time the first vehicle is engaged in an autonomous droning relationship versus a total amount of time the first vehicle has driven over a period of time.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the autonomous droning insurance factor comprises a ratio of an amount of distance the first vehicle is engaged in an autonomous droning relationship versus a total distance the first vehicle has driven over a period of time.

6. The method of claim 3 wherein the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship further comprises an amount of distance driven while the first vehicle is the lead vehicle.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship further comprises that the first vehicle is engaged in manual driving.

8. The method of claim 3 wherein the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship further comprises an amount of distance that the first vehicle is engaged in manual driving.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the characteristic of the autonomous droning relationship further comprises a weather condition.

10. The method of claim 3 further comprising receiving information pertaining to a second insurance policy of the second vehicle and determining the property of the first insurance policy of the first vehicle at least in part by using the information pertaining to the second insurance policy.

Assignees

• Allstate Insurance Co

Inventors

• Slusar Mark V

Classifications

• G06Q40/04 Primary

  Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange · CPC title

• G07C5/008

  communicating information to a remotely located station (transmission systems for measured values G08C) · CPC title

• G06Q40/08 Primary

  Insurance · CPC title

• B60W40/09

  Driving style or behaviour · CPC title

• G05D1/021

  specially adapted to land vehicles · CPC title