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2023 JAN 31 (NewsRx) — By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News — From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventor Floyd, Matthew L. (Alpharetta, GA, US), filed on September 14, 2022, was made available online on January 12, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Usage-based insurance contracts (also known as trip based insurance) are short-term contracts that allow a driver to pay for insurance as they need it. In many cases, this insurance is based upon the combination of the user and the vehicle. However, as many drivers are no longer being tied to specific vehicles, it has become more difficult to determine the proper insurance for the individual user on a case by case basis. Furthermore, while the usage-based insurance (UBI) may include restrictions on the user, it is not always possible to determine when the user has complied with these restrictions. In some cases, a user may wish to modify already issued insurance to allow for a detour or side trip. There exists a need to collect and collate data about a user and a trip to allow for proper tracking of insurance policies and individuals.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “The present embodiments may relate to blockchain based systems and methods for managing usage-based insurance contracts. The platform may include an Insurance Monitoring (IM) computer system associated with a vehicle, a User Based Auto Insurance Management (“UBAIM”) system, a plurality of sensors on the vehicle, a plurality of vehicle computer devices associated with a plurality of vehicles configured to act as nodes for a blockchain ledger, and/or an insurer auction network including a plurality of insurer computer devices associated with a plurality of insurers. The IM computer system may be a mobile device associated with the driver and/or a vehicle computer device associated with the vehicle. In some further embodiments, the IM computer system may be separate from the vehicle and be in communication with the vehicle.

“The IM computer system may be configured to: (i) receive a user request for trip insurance (such as via wireless communication or data transmission over one or more radio links or digital communication channels), where the user request includes a plurality of information about the user (who may or may not be the driver), the vehicle (which may be an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle), and the trip; (ii) transmit the user request to the insurer auction network, where the insurer auction network transmits the request to the plurality of insurer computer devices, which are configured to generate bids based upon the user request; (iii) receive, from the insurer auction network, a plurality of bids (or a selected winning bid) from the plurality of insurer computer devices for trip insurance based upon the user request; (iv) display the plurality of bids (or selected winning bid) to the user; (v) receive a user selection of a bid of the plurality of bids (or a user approval of the selected winning bid); (vi) transmit the user selection (or user approval) to the insurer auction network, where the insurer auction network notifies the insurer computer device associated with the selected bid (or winning bid), which may be the UBAIM server or may be in communication with the UBAIM server; (vii) store an insurance and/or smart contract that includes one or more terms (the terms may include conditions, clauses, vehicle or driver limitations, premiums, discounts, deductibles, endorsements, duties, obligations, etc.) for the trip using a blockchain structure, where the plurality of nodes store copies of the insurance contract, and where in some embodiments, the blockchain based insurance contract may be generated by the UBAIM server, and in other embodiments, the blockchain based insurance contract may be generated by the IM computer system based off of information from the bid and/or the UBAIM server. The IM computer system may further be configured to: (viii) receive, from the driver and/or a vehicle (such as an autonomous vehicle controller), a requested modification of at least one of the one or more terms of the insurance contract; (ix) transmit the requested modification to the UBAIM server; (x) receive a response to the request from the UBAIM server, where the response may include an approval or one or more additional terms; (xi) if the response includes one or more additional terms, display the one or more additional terms to the driver and/or vehicle for approval and wait to receive approval of the one or more additional terms from the driver; (xii) store the modification, the response, the approval, and/or the one or more additional terms in the insurance contract (which may be a virtual or electronic smart contract), in some embodiments, the IM computer system may (a) generate a new block for the insurance contract based upon the requested modification and the response, (b) update the insurance contract with the new block, and/or © transmit the new block with the plurality of nodes, where each the plurality of nodes are configured to update their stored copies of the insurance contract with the new block. In other embodiments, the IM computer system may transmit the requested modification and the response to the plurality of nodes, where each of the plurality of nodes are configured to generate a new block based upon the requested modification and the response and update their stored copies of the insurance contract with the generated block. The IM computer system may further be configured to: (xiii) receive sensor information from the one or more sensors associated with the vehicle; (xiv) with customer permission or affirmative consent, compare the received sensor information with the one or more terms (conditions, limitations, clauses, duties, obligations, etc.) of the (electronic and/or smart) insurance contract; (xv) determine whether the driver and/or the vehicle (such as autonomous vehicle) complied with the one or more terms based upon the comparison; (xvi) if the determination is that the driver or autonomous vehicle complied with the one or more terms, the computer device may be further configured to: (a) transmit a notification of driver or autonomous vehicle compliance to an insurance server associated with the insurance contract; (b) generate a new block for the insurance contract based upon the notification of driver or autonomous vehicle compliance; © store the notification of driver or autonomous vehicle compliance in the insurance contract; (d) receive an indication of a discount and/or lower premium for the insurance contract from the insurance server; (e) generate a new block for the insurance contract based upon the indication of the discount and/or lower premium; (f) store the indication in the insurance contract; (g) display the indication of the discount and/or lower premium of the insurance contract to the driver including an acknowledgement request; (h) receive the acknowledgement from the driver and/or vehicle; (i) generate a new block for the insurance contract based upon the acknowledgement; (j) store the acknowledgement in the insurance contract; and/or (k) generate a new block for the insurance contract based upon the notification, the indication, and/or the acknowledgement; and/or (xvii) generate a new block for the (electronic or smart) insurance contract that includes sensor information on a periodic basis.

“The present embodiments may relate to systems and methods for managing usage-based insurance. A computer system, as described herein, may include a vehicle controller or a mobile computer device. The computer device may be configured to (i) receive a user request for trip insurance, where the user request includes a plurality of information about the user, the vehicle (which may be an autonomous vehicle), and the trip (such as an upcoming, approaching, or impending trip using the vehicle); (ii) transmit the user request to an insurer auction network, where the insurer auction network includes a plurality of insurers; (iii) receive, from the insurer auction network, a plurality of bids from a plurality of insurers for insurance for the trip (or a winning bid); (iv) display the plurality of bids (or winning bid) to the user; (v) receive a user selection of a bid of the plurality of bids (or approval of the winning bid); (vi) transmit the user selection (or user approval) to the insurer auction network; (vii) generate an insurance contract (such as a virtual or electronic insurance and/or smart contract) based upon the user request and the selected bid (or user approval of the winning bid); (viii) receive the insurance contract from an insurance server associated with the selected bid (or winning bid); (ix) store the insurance contract based upon the selected bid (or winning bid), where the insurance contract is in a blockchain structure, where a plurality of nodes store copies of the insurance contract in the blockchain structure. The plurality of nodes may include a plurality of computer devices each associated with one of a plurality of vehicles, and the insurance server may be one of the plurality of nodes, and may include one or more terms (the terms may include conditions, obligations, duties, limitations (including driver or vehicle limitations associated with a specific trip or usage-based insurance contract), premiums, discounts, deductibles, clauses, and/or other terms); (x) receive, from the driver and/or vehicle, a requested modification of at least one of the one or more terms of the insurance contract; (xi) transmit the requested modification to an insurance server associated with the insurance contract; (xii) receive a response to the request from the insurance server, where the response includes one or more additional terms; (xiii) display the one or more additional terms to the driver for approval; (xiv) receive approval of the one or more additional terms from the driver or vehicle; (xv) store the one or more additional terms and the response in the insurance contract; (xvi) generate a new block for the insurance contract based upon the requested modification and the response; (xvii) update the insurance contract with the new block; (xviii) transmit the new block the plurality of nodes, where each the plurality of nodes are configured to update their stored copies of the insurance contract with the new block; (xix) transmit the requested modification and the response to the plurality of nodes, where each of the plurality of nodes are configured to generate a new block based upon the requested modification and the response and update their stored copies of the insurance contract with the generated block; (xx) receive sensor information from one or more sensors associated with the vehicle or user mobile device; and/or (xxi) with the driver’s or vehicle owner’s permission or affirmative consent, compare the received sensor information with the one or more terms of the insurance contract.”

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The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A vehicle computer device associated with a vehicle, the vehicle computer device comprising: at least one memory device; and at least one processor is configured to: generate a trip request based upon trip information received from a user of the vehicle computer device; transmit the trip request to an auction computer network including a plurality of computer devices associated with a plurality of insurers; receive, from the auction computer network, a plurality of bids in response to the trip request, each bid associated with an insurer of the plurality of insurers and including information requested in the trip request; transmit an approval of a bid of the plurality of bids to at least one of the plurality of computer devices of the insurer associated with the bid; receive, from a user based auto insurance management (UBAIM) server associated with the auction computer network, a smart contract associated with the bid; store the smart contract in a first block in a blockchain structure accessible to the vehicle computer device; and create a new block in the blockchain structure based upon updated information received from the UBAIM server and associated with the smart contract.

“2. The vehicle computer device of claim 1, wherein the blockchain structure includes a plurality of nodes configured to store copies of the smart contract in the blockchain structure.

“3. The vehicle computer device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: display an indication of a discount associated with the smart contract to the user including an acknowledgement request; and transmit an acknowledgement to the UBAIM server.

“4. The vehicle computer device of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate another new block in the blockchain structure for storing the acknowledgement in response to the acknowledgement being received.

“5. The vehicle computer device of claim 3, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate another new block in the blockchain structure for storing the indication of the discount and the acknowledgement.

“6. The vehicle computer device of claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to transmit sensor information associated with the trip, wherein the sensor information is collected by one or more sensors associated with the vehicle, and wherein the sensor information includes data related to operation of the vehicle during the trip.

“7. The vehicle computer device of claim 6, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to generate another new block of the blockchain structure for the sensor information on a periodic basis.

“8. A computer-implemented method using a vehicle computer device associated with a vehicle and including at least one memory device and at least one processor, the method comprising: generating a trip request based upon trip information received from a user of the vehicle computer device; transmitting the trip request to an auction computer network including a plurality of computer devices associated with a plurality of insurers; receiving, from the auction computer network, a plurality of bids in response to the trip request, each bid associated with an insurer of the plurality of insurers and including information requested in the trip request; transmitting an approval of a bid of the plurality of bids to at least one of the plurality of computer devices of the insurer associated with the bid; receiving, from a user based auto insurance management (UBAIM) server associated with the auction computer network, a smart contract associated with the bid; storing the smart contract in a first block in a blockchain structure accessible to the vehicle computer device; and creating a new block in the blockchain structure based upon updated information received from the UBAIM server and associated with the smart contract.

“9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, wherein the blockchain structure includes a plurality of nodes configured to store copies of the smart contract in the blockchain structure.

“10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising: displaying an indication of a discount associated with the smart contract to the user including an acknowledgement request; and transmitting an acknowledgement to the UBAIM server.

“11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 further comprising generating another new block in the blockchain structure for storing the acknowledgement in response to the acknowledgement being received.

“12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 further comprising generating another new block in the blockchain structure for storing the indication of the discount and the acknowledgement.

“13. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 further comprising transmitting sensor information associated with the trip, wherein the sensor information is collected by one or more sensors associated with the vehicle, and wherein the sensor information includes data related to operation of the vehicle during the trip.

“14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13 further comprising generating another new block of the blockchain structure for the sensor information on a periodic basis.

“15. At least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable instructions embodied thereon, wherein when executed by at least one processor of a vehicle computer device including at least one memory device and associated with a vehicle, the computer-executable instructions cause the at least one processor to: generate a trip request based upon trip information received from a user of the vehicle computer device; transmit the trip request to an auction computer network including a plurality of computer devices associated with a plurality of insurers; receive, from the auction computer network, a plurality of bids in response to the trip request, each bid associated with an insurer of the plurality of insurers and including information requested in the trip request; transmit an approval of a bid of the plurality of bids to at least one of the plurality of computer devices of the insurer associated with the bid; receive, from a user based auto insurance management (UBAIM) server associated with the auction computer network, a smart contract associated with the bid; store the smart contract in a first block in a blockchain structure accessible to the vehicle computer device; and create a new block in the blockchain structure based upon updated information received from the UBAIM server and associated with the smart contract.

“16. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the blockchain structure includes a plurality of nodes configured to store copies of the smart contract in the blockchain structure.

“17. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to: display an indication of a discount associated with the smart contract to the user including an acknowledgement request; and transmit an acknowledgement to the UBAIM server.

“18. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to generate another new block in the blockchain structure for storing the acknowledgement in response to the acknowledgement being received.

“19. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to generate another new block in the blockchain structure for storing the indication of the discount and the acknowledgement.

“20. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the computer-executable instructions further cause the at least one processor to transmit sensor information associated with the trip, wherein the sensor information is collected by one or more sensors associated with the vehicle, and wherein the sensor information includes data related to operation of the vehicle during the trip.”

For additional information on this patent application, see: Floyd, Matthew L. Blockchain Controlled Multi-Carrier Auction System For Usage-Based Auto Insurance. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230008881, filed September 14, 2022 and posted January 12, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230008881)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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