Millions of manned and unmanned vehicles are used throughout the world every day. The vehicles may be powered or unpowered (e.g., transported or towed by another vehicle) and are commonly used to transport people and cargo that range in size from a single occupant operator to multiple occupant passengers and freight. These vehicles also include a wide range of types, including motorcycles, automobiles, busses, trucks, trains, bicycles, aircraft, and watercraft. To protect a vehicle against the risk of a loss resulting from theft, collision, accident, or other event, a vehicle owner may purchase an insurance policy for the vehicle from a vehicle insurance provider. The insurance policy outlines the conditions and circumstances under which the insured vehicle owner will be financially compensated should the insured vehicle suffer a loss.
Providing for vehicle insurance coverage is a sophisticated technical process that involves many disciplines, including actuarial science, marketing, finance, and government regulation to name but a few. Intricately connected with these disciplines is the vast amount of available information associated with vehicles. For example, each vehicle typically includes a vehicle manufacturer's coded vehicle identification number (VIN and/or VIN number), which when fully decoded, identifies a unique vehicle. The VIN number includes various sections or segments that may be standardized depending where the VIN number is being used, e.g., U.S.A., European Union. Segments of the VIN number may be associated with the vehicle manufacturer identifier, vehicle type identifier, and vehicle serial number. A VIN number with fully populated segments identifies a unique vehicle, while an incomplete or semi-populated VIN number may generally pertain to a group, type, make, model, trim level, class, etc., of vehicle.
Enormous amounts of other information associated with vehicles is also attainable from various resources, for example, collision statistics, marketing statistics, vehicle demographics, governmental vehicle statistics, vehicle recall alerts, vehicle owner information, consumer information research, academic journals, blog, and researcher publications. By effectively accumulating, maintaining, and coordinating the use of a seemingly endless amount of vehicle information, a vehicle insurance provider may enhance many of the services it provides to insured vehicle owners.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds