This week, Allstate announced a new partnership with Stanford University’s Intelligent Systems Lab to research the implications of connected cars and autonomous vehicles. But according to an analysis of CB Insights Patent Search Engine & Analytics, Allstate is also one of the insurers who have filed a patent related to the development of autonomous vehicles.
Here we take a look at a few of the disclosed patent apps & granted patent applications mentioning autonomous vehicles by P&C insurers including State Farm, The Hartford, and Travelers. Most of the patent filings focus on the processing or generaing of autonomous vehicle data as it relates to determining insurance coverage. To view the patents mentioning autonomous vehicles and insurance on CB Insights, click here.
Allstate
Patent name: Altering autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle operation based on route traversal values
Status: Granted March 2017
Description: Allstate filed and was granted a patent for receiving historical route and real-time vehicle information to calculate a ‘route traversal value for the associated driving route.’ Allstate may use the route information “to help determine insurance premiums for autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles by analyzing and/or mitigating the risk associated with operating those vehicles.”
Patent name: Insurance system related to a vehicle-to-vehicle communication system
Status: Granted July 2016
Description: Allstate filed and was granted a patent for using vehicle-to-vehicle communication to determine systems and methods for identifying whether vehicles are involved in autonomous droning, “where a vehicle engages in at least partial autonomous driving based on the driving of a lead or pilot vehicle.” The granted patent further notes that vehicle involved in a drafting relationship (where one vehicle follows another vehicle to reduce the overall effect of drag and improve fuel efficiency) in addition to, or apart from, an autonomous droning relationship may be financially rewarded. Allstate gives example rewards of “a cash payment, a carbon credit, a fuel credit, a tax credit, and/or a rebate.”
State Farm
Patent name: Systems and methods for generating data that is representative of an insurance policy for an autonomous vehicle
Status: Filed February 2014
Description: State Farm filed a patent detailing systems and methods for generating data for insurance coverage for autonomous vehicles based on “data representative of autonomous vehicle reliability.” The State Farm patent notes “the data representative of autonomous vehicle reliability may include data representative of the autonomous vehicle original equipment manufacturer test results, autonomous vehicle system manufacturer test results, autonomous vehicle system component manufacturer test results, insurance company autonomous vehicle, systems and/or component test results, and/or third party test results of the autonomous vehicle, systems and/or components.”
The Hartford
Patent name: Systems and Method for autonomous vehicle data processing
Status: Filed October 2014
Description: The Hartford filed a patent for a system to determine insurance premiums associated with an insurance account covering “a vehicle including an autonomous feature and a driver comprising a computer memory that stores biographical information including information regarding the autonomous feature.” The patent further describes “a processor that receives information associated with telematics data associated with the vehicle and “further configured to…generate a driver risk assessment responsive to the one of the discrete segments of use” as well as “calculate pricing information based on the risk assessment and the biographical information.”
Travelers
Patent name: Insurance applications for autonomous vehicles
Status: Filed December 2013
Description: Travelers filed a patent for systems, methods and articles of manufacture “that provide for insurance claims handling, underwriting, and risk assessment applications utilizing autonomous vehicle data.”
Learn more about CB Insights patent search engine and analytics.
If you aren’t already a client, sign up for a free trial to learn more about our platform.