State Farm has applied for a patent on a system that will notify policyholders when their vehicle is located in an area that poses risk, such as parked in a garage that’s recently seen a high number of thefts. 

The patent titled “Systems and methods for identifying and assessing location-based risks for vehicles” was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office late last month. 

The patent says a processing server would be able to determine the risk of an incident based on information it receives from data associated with the vehicle’s location. The server then could decide to generate a notification to communicate to the vehicle operator. 

“The vehicle operator can assess the risk and take action to mitigate the risk, for example by relocating the vehicle,” the patent says. “The processing server can receive updated location data for the vehicle and can determine, based on the updated location data, that the risk has been mitigated.” 

A policyholder that heeds the advice of the notification could be rewarded, the patent says. One sample notification gives a policyholder a 10% discount on their next month’s premium for removing their vehicle from a garage with high thefts. 

“There is a constant effort to improve vehicular safety by reducing the risk of incidents that may lead to fatalities, injuries, and damage or theft of vehicles,” the patent says. “For example, certain intersections have a high accident rate because of factors such as a high traffic rate or number of lanes.” 

Insurance companies have a vested interest in reducing incidents, the patent says.

“However, it has proven difficult for insurance providers to warn customers of certain risks when the customer’s vehicle is in a location or environment typically known to have a higher rate of incidents,” the patent says. 

The insurer could track the vehicle’s location through multiple methods including GPS sensors in the vehicle or through sensors connected to policyholders’ devices. Notifications could also come through a vehicle’s onboard computer or to personal devices, such as cell phones. 

Third-party servers that store data about locations such as road construction, school zones, traffic conditions, crime data or weather would be used to help determine risk. 

Data could also be collected from multiple clients’ devices or on-board computers and distributed among services, such as cloud computing, the patent says. 

Risks that drivers could be notified of include a high amount of traffic moving from an event, slow or stopped traffic ahead, and weather conditions such as fog or sun in the eyes. 

The system could calculate an increased risk, such as 20%, from an approaching storm and determine that is high enough to notify a policyholder, the patent says. 

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