Allstate Patents Highlight Focus On Quantifying Units of Risk And New Sensor Data

Over the last five years, Allstate has filed over 100 patents ranging from a pricing system that charges consumers based on the riskiness of driving trips to systems for performing insurance damage inspection by drones.

Here we use CB Insights patent search engine & analytics to analyze some of the strategic focus areas of Allstate’s patent portfolio.

The chart below highlights the number of distinct patents Allstate has filed by year since 2012. It’s important to note, of course, that the patent filing process involves a significant time-lag before the publishing of patent applications. This delay can range from several months to over two years, meaning that records prior to 2013 are likely complete at the time of analysis, but there may be applications from 2014 on that have yet to be published. For example, as Allstate itself once noted, its patent for a “motor vehicle operating data collection and analysis” system filed in 2013 was a continuation of patents that date back to 2005.

A quick look at the various topics from Allstate’s recent patent apps highlight a focus on the individual, refill-able risk unit (rather than in six or 12-month policies) and vehicle sensor data. In 2015, Allstate first filed for a patent called “Risk unit based policies”, which was granted in July 2016 and would allow for consumers to purchase certain “risk units” associated with an individual or vehicle and monitored by sensor data tracking things like environment conditions and driving behavior. In this case, more risk units would be consumed if engaging in riskier driving behavior like speeding or on a dangerous route.

Individual patents since 2012 involving the term “vehicle sensor” by Allstate include patents for driving event data analysis and traffic based driving analysis. The latter would allow Allstate to receive driving behavior data and gather insights about other nearby cars in order to compare policyholder driving habits with others. The concept is similar to that of AI dashcam startup Nexar, which claims to have profiled the driving behavior of more than 45% of all registered vehicles in the San Francisco Bay Area. Allstate spun out a unit called Arity in June 2016, which collects driver data, analyzes driver risk, and sells software tools.

Perhaps Allstate’s most unlikely patent filing over the period? Allstate filed a patent in 2014 for a food delivery service utilizing historical and/or insurance information to enhance delivery services. That patent, though, has yet to be granted and may be in the process of being rejected.

Below we applied a statistical model to reveal key phrases and topics that emerge from Allstate’s patents by year.

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