Broadcasting information related to hazards impacting vehicle travel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9842496-B1
Application number	US-201614990228-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 7, 2016
Priority date	Jan 20, 2015
Publication date	Dec 12, 2017
Grant date	Dec 12, 2017

Abstract

A system of broadcasting information related to hazards impacting vehicle travel may include a mobile device configured to: (1) mount within a vehicle dashboard cradle so that the mobile device is positioned to take images forward of a vehicle; (2) collect telematics data, with customer permission or affirmative consent, when the vehicle is moving, including GPS location, speed, heading, lane, braking, cornering, acceleration, and/or route data of the vehicle; (3) generate an alert based upon the telematics data and the images, and/or broadcast data including the images and the telematics data; and/or (4) broadcast the alert and/or the data collected to (a) a nearby vehicle(s) and/or (b) a smart infrastructure component(s) to facilitate warning of hazards upon the nearby vehicle(s) and/or the smart infrastructure component(s) receiving and processing the alert and/or the broadcasted data. Insurance discounts may be generated based upon the risk mitigation or prevention functionality.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A system of broadcasting information related to hazards impacting vehicle travel, the system comprising:
a mobile computing device configured to:
mount within a vehicle dashboard cradle so that the mobile computing device is positioned to take images forward of a vehicle;
collect telematics data of the vehicle when the vehicle is moving and the mobile computing device is mounted within the vehicle dashboard cradle, the telematics data including Global Positioning System (GPS) location data, speed data, at least one of direction data or heading data, braking data, cornering data, and at least one of acceleration data or deceleration data of the vehicle;
generate at least one of (1) an alert based upon the telematics data and the images, or (2) broadcasting data including the images and the telematics data;
broadcast the at least one of the alert or the broadcasting data to at least one of (1) at least one nearby vehicle or (2) at least one smart infrastructure component via wireless communication or data transmission to warn at least one of drivers or smart vehicles of at least one of hazardous conditions or vehicle accidents upon the at least one of the at least one nearby vehicle or the at least one smart infrastructure component receiving and processing the at least one of the alert or the broadcasting data; and
cause an insurance provider remote server to at least one of adjust or generate an insurance discount associated with the vehicle for display to an insured customer associated with the vehicle via the mobile computing device in response to the mobile computing device being configured to (1) determine a relevance of an identified anomaly based upon whether a location of the identified anomaly as determined based upon the telematics data and the images is within a threshold distance of a current location of the vehicle, and (2) generate and broadcast the at least one of (i) the alert based upon the telematics data and the images, or (ii) the broadcasting data including the images and the telematics data so as to incentivize the insured customer to facilitate warning at least one of drivers or smart vehicles of at least one of hazardous conditions or vehicle accidents.

2. The system of claim 1 , the system further comprising:
the at least one nearby vehicle, wherein the at least one nearby vehicle is configured to generate at least one local alert at the at least one nearby vehicle to warn at least one of drivers or smart vehicles of at least one of hazardous conditions or vehicle accidents upon receiving and processing the at least one of the alert or the broadcasting data from the vehicle.

3. The system of claim 1 , the system further comprising:
the at least one smart infrastructure component, wherein the at least one smart infrastructure component is configured to generate at least one local alert at the at least one smart infrastructure component to warn at least one of drivers or smart vehicles of at least one of hazardous conditions or vehicle accidents upon receiving and processing the at least one of the alert or the broadcasting data that includes the telematics data from the vehicle.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the mobile computing device is further configured to:
analyze the telematics data and the images to detect a hazard on a road on which the vehicle is being driven, and
generate the alert based upon the hazard detected.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the hazard is detected by identifying at least one of an animal, a pedestrian, or a vehicle accident using an object recognition technique on the images taken forward of the vehicle.

6. The system of claim 4 , wherein the mobile computing device is further configured to:
broadcast the alert via wireless communication or data transmission to the at least one of the at least one nearby vehicle or the at least one smart infrastructure component only after the hazard is detected from at least one of computer analysis or object recognition techniques being performed on the telematics data and the images.

7. The system of claim 1 , further comprising:
the insurance provider remote server, wherein the insurance provider remote server is configured to at least one of adjust or generate the insurance discount for the vehicle.

8. A mobile computing device for facilitating safer vehicle travel, the mobile computing device comprising:
a controller configured to:
determine whether the mobile computing device is mounted in a vehicle;
collect, when it is determined that the mobile computing device is mounted in the vehicle, (1) telematics data associated with the vehicle, the telematics data including Global Positioning System (GPS) location data, speed data, at least one of direction data or heading data, braking data, cornering data, and at least one of acceleration data or deceleration data of the vehicle, and (2) digital data including at least one of digital image, digital audio, or digital video data associated with at least one of an interior or exterior of the vehicle; and
analyze the telematics data and digital data collected to determine whether a hazard is associated with a road on which the vehicle is being driven; and

at least one of a communication unit or a transceiver configured to:
broadcast the telematics data and the digital data when the hazard is detected from the analysis of the telematics data and the digital data; and
cause an insurance provider remote server to at least one of adjust or generate an insurance discount associated with the vehicle for display to an insured customer associated with the vehicle via the mobile computing device in response to the mobile computing device being configured to (1) determine a relevance of an identified anomaly based upon whether a location of the identified anomaly as determined based upon the telematics data and the digital data is within a threshold distance of a current location of the vehicle, and (2) analyze the telematics data and the digital data to determine whether the hazard is associated with the road on which the vehicle is being driven so as to incentivize the insured customer to facilitate warning at least one of drivers or smart vehicles of hazards,

wherein the telematics data and the digital data are received by at least one of (1) a second mobile computing device located in a second vehicle that issues, in response to the telematics data and the digital data, an alert notifying a driver of the second vehicle of the hazard, or (2) at least one smart infrastructure component that transmits, in response to the telematics data and the digital data, at least one of (a) an alert or (b) the telematics data and the digital data onto at least one of the second vehicle or at least one other vehicle in the vicinity of the hazard.

9. The mobile computing device of claim 8 ,
wherein the telematics data and the digital data included in the broadcast further include an indication of (1) a GPS location of the hazard or a vicinity of the hazard and (2) a description of the hazard.

10. The mobile computing device of claim 8 , wherein the controller is configured to analyze the telematics data and the digital data collected to determine whether the hazard is associated with the road on which the vehicle is being driven by performing object recognition techniques on digital images captured by the mobile computing device in a vicinity of the vehicle to detect at least one object, including at least one of a pedestrian, an animal, or another vehicle.

11. The mobile computing device of claim 8 , wherein the mobile computing device is configured to monitor an amount of time or mileage that the vehicle was driven with risk mitigation or

Assignees

• State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co

Inventors

• Hayward Gregory

Classifications

• B60W40/10

  related to vehicle motion · CPC title

• B60W50/14

  Means for informing the driver, warning the driver or prompting a driver intervention · CPC title

• G01S19/13

  Receivers · CPC title

• G01C21/3655

  Timing of guidance instructions · CPC title

• G06Q10/047

  Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem · CPC title