Patents Assigned to TrueCar, Inc.
  • Patent number: 11966933
    Abstract: Systems and method herein provide for sophisticated and efficient matching between users of a vehicle data system and data on sales that occur, where that data was obtained from distributed sources across a computer network. In particular, embodiments may obtain data from a variety of data sources across a distributed network and enhance data records by correlating the data obtained from these distributed sources. Data on sales thus obtain can be correlated with data on online users of the vehicle data system using a scoring engine to provide confidence scores to potential user-sale matches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 19, 2023
    Date of Patent: April 23, 2024
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventor: Rudy C. Gilmore
  • Patent number: 11922439
    Abstract: A system, method, and computer program product for identifying consumer items more likely to be bought by an individual user. In some embodiments, a collaborative filter may be used to rank items based on the degree to which they match user preferences. The collaborative filter may be hierarchical and may take various factors into consideration. Example factors may include the similarity among items based on observable features, a summary of aggregate online search behavior across multiple users, the item features determined to be most important to the individual user, and a baseline item against which a conditional probability of another item being selected is measured.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2022
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas J. Sullivan, Michael D. Swinson
  • Patent number: 11869059
    Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: January 9, 2024
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Taira, Scott Painter, Chris Taylor, Robert Taylor, Michael D. Swinson
  • Patent number: 11803800
    Abstract: Lead to recognition time delay data, leads and sales data, and lead distance data for leads arriving at a system within a time range can be used to determine a time variable close rate and a distance adjustment thereof which, in turn, can be used to generate a predicted close rate for each lead. Using the predicted close rate for each lead, an address drive distance for each lead, and dealer-level discount information, a logistic regression model can be trained to generate a score for each combination of a dealer, make, and zip code. Each score indicates a probability of closing a sale between a lead in the zip code and the dealer in the combination. Scores thus generated can be used by a computing facility in recommending dealers to a consumer in the zip code who has expressed an interest in purchasing a vehicle of the same make.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Sharat Nair, Jake Swartz, Victor Dave Choi, Zheng Li
  • Patent number: 11741512
    Abstract: A vehicle sales matching system may include a vehicle sales lead data database, a vehicle sales information database, and a sales matching system embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable medium and communicatively connected to the vehicle sales lead data database and the vehicle sales information database. The vehicle sales lead data may include validated customer data and third-party customer data. The vehicle sales information may include sales data from vehicle dealers, data extract services, and sales data sources. The sales matching system may be configured for applying one or more matching rules for matching a vehicle sales lead from the vehicle sales lead database to a vehicle sale from the vehicle sales information database.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 27, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: James Francis Berger, Jacob Michael LaCivita, James Thai Nguyen, Meghashyam Grama Ramanuja, Michael D. Swinson, Thomas Taira
  • Patent number: 11687961
    Abstract: Disclosed are embodiments for the aggregation and analysis of vehicle prices via a geo-specific model. Data may be collected at various geo-specific levels such as a ZIP-Code level to provide greater data resolution. Data sets taken into account may include demarcation point data sets and data sets based on vehicle transactions. A demarcation point data set may be based on consumer market factors that influence car-buying behavior. Vehicle transactions may be classified into data sets for other vehicles having similar characteristics to the vehicle. A geo-specific statistical pricing model may then be applied to the data sets based on similar characteristics to a particular vehicle to produce a price estimation for the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 27, 2023
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D. Swinson, Param Pash Kaur Dhillon, Thomas J. Sullivan, Xingchu Liu
  • Patent number: 11669874
    Abstract: To increase the efficiency of a used vehicle data processing process while still tailoring to an individual user's unique specifications on a used vehicle, at least some pre-calculations are performed by a backend process before a request for data for a specified vehicle is received through a web site or a web server on the Internet. A user can be presented with an interface where the user can make a variety of determinations. After the user requests data on a specific vehicle configuration, a frontend process handles user-provided data in conjunction with the data calculated in the backend process to ensure that the results are better tailored to the user's specific vehicle attributes. The results can include pricing data such as a trade-in price, a list price, an expected sale price or range of sale prices, market low sale price, market average sale price, market high sale price, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2022
    Date of Patent: June 6, 2023
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D. Swinson, Isaac Lemon Laughlin, Meghashyam Grama Ramanuja, Mikhail Semeniuk, Xingchu Liu
  • Patent number: 11663644
    Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 13, 2022
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2023
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Taira, Scott Painter, Chris Taylor, Robert Taylor, Michael D. Swinson
  • Patent number: 11593818
    Abstract: Systems and method herein provide for sophisticated and efficient matching between users of a vehicle data system and data on sales that occur, where that data was obtained from distributed sources across a computer network. In particular, embodiments may obtain data from a variety of data sources across a distributed network and enhance data records by correlating the data obtained from these distributed sources. Data on sales thus obtain can be correlated with data on online users of the vehicle data system using a scoring engine to provide confidence scores to potential user-sale matches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: February 28, 2023
    Assignee: Truecar, Inc.
    Inventor: Rudy C. Gilmore
  • Patent number: 11580567
    Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 23, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: TRUECAR, INC.
    Inventors: Thomas Taira, Scott Painter, Chris Taylor, Robert Taylor, Michael D. Swinson
  • Patent number: 11580579
    Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. In certain embodiments, one or more models may be applied over a set of historical transaction data associated with a vehicle configuration to determine pricing data. Some models may leverage incremental data in various conditions, including cases where fewer than a desired number of historical transactions are present in the bin of a specified vehicle, where fewer than, equal to, or more than a certain number of list prices for the specified vehicle available, and where no historical transaction data for new models is available.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: February 14, 2023
    Assignee: TRUECAR, INC.
    Inventors: Michael Swinson, Lin O'Driscoll, Scott Painter
  • Patent number: 11532003
    Abstract: Endogenous and exogenous variables associated with an item for sale by an affiliate may be displayed to a user of an affiliate decision-making tool. In response to the user selecting one of the endogenous variables, the affiliate decision-making tool may compute a number of introductions, a number of leads, and a number of sales for each of a plurality of possible values of the endogenous variable. The computation may be done utilizing a display position algorithm. A visualization of effects of setting the endogenous variable at different levels may be presented. The user may interact with the display position algorithm to vary one or more of the plurality of possible values of the endogenous variable such that the affiliate is eligible or disqualified to be displayed by an intermediary in response to a search for the item by a visitor of a network site owned and operated by the intermediary.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 16, 2021
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D. Swinson, Jason McBride, Isaac Lemon Laughlin, Thomas J. Sullivan
  • Patent number: 11532001
    Abstract: Disclosed are embodiments for the aggregation and analysis of vehicle prices via a geo-specific model. Data may be collected at various geo-specific levels such as a ZIP-Code level to provide greater data resolution. Data sets taken into account may include demarcation point data sets and data sets based on vehicle transactions. A demarcation point data set may be based on consumer market factors that influence car-buying behavior. Vehicle transactions may be classified into data sets for other vehicles having similar characteristics to the vehicle. A geo-specific statistical pricing model may then be applied to the data sets based on similar characteristics to a particular vehicle to produce a price estimation for the vehicle.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 20, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D. Swinson, Param Pash Kaur Dhillon, Thomas J. Sullivan, Xingchu Liu
  • Patent number: 11455647
    Abstract: Systems, methods and computer program products for selecting dealers based on characteristics of the dealers and the user. A vehicle data system collects dealer location and historical transaction data from external data sources and generates and stores an eligibility table that identifies a set of eligible dealers for each combination of user location and vehicle make. Eligible dealers are determined from the eligibility table using a location and vehicle make identified from a user request. Scores are determined for each eligible dealer based on a dealer scoring model using a binary choice model in the form of a logistic regression of market share, inventory, close rate, price and distance, and dealers are ranked by these scores. A presentation of dealers selected by rank and by closest location to the user is generated and provided to the user via an interface running on a computing device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher James O'Keeffe, Michael D. Swinson, Ludovica Rizzo, Daniel Salazar
  • Patent number: 11416800
    Abstract: Systems, method and computer program products for presenting to a user a visualization of a vehicle dealer performance assessment based on dealer location and vehicle sales transaction data, where the assessment is based on geographically normalized metrics. Dealer location data and historical vehicle sales transaction data is collected by a in a vehicle data system from external data sources. Distances from dealers to geographical regions of interest are determined, and differences between these distances are normalized to produce competition zone indices for the geographical regions. The competition zone indices are then used to aggregate the geographical regions into different competition zones in which dealers of interest have corresponding levels of competitive advantage or disadvantage, normalized according to typical distances associated with transactions in the respective geographical regions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2018
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher James O'Keeffe, Michael D. Swinson, Ludovica Rizzo, Daniel Salazar
  • Patent number: 11410206
    Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods disclosed herein provide solutions for predicting vehicle invoice pricing, trim, and options by starting from scratch (raw data), transforming the raw data into actionable data, and comprehensively exploring all possible option combinations that can match a vehicle's Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price (MSRP). Embodiments implement algorithms that determine the trim of a vehicle and intelligently analyze all possible option combinations that would result in a target MSRP while avoid searching unnecessary vehicle configurations. The algorithms can be used to predict the trim, invoice, and options of a vehicle based on the vehicle's VIN and MSRP.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2015
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Pan Wu, Meghashyam Grama Ramanuja, Lin O'Driscoll, Michael D. Swinson
  • Patent number: 11392999
    Abstract: To increase the efficiency of a used vehicle data processing process while still tailoring to an individual user's unique specifications on a used vehicle, at least some pre-calculations are performed by a backend process before a request for data for a specified vehicle is received through a web site or a web server on the Internet. A user can be presented with an interface where the user can make a variety of determinations. After the user requests data on a specific vehicle configuration, a frontend process handles user-provided data in conjunction with the data calculated in the backend process to ensure that the results are better tailored to the user's specific vehicle attributes. The results can include pricing data such as a trade-in price, a list price, an expected sale price or range of sale prices, market low sale price, market average sale price, market high sale price, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Michael D. Swinson, Isaac Lemon Laughlin, Meghashyam Grama Ramanuja, Mikhail Semeniuk, Xingchu Liu
  • Patent number: 11361331
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer program products for identifying items more likely to be selected by an individual user as a next hop in a search path. Probability metrics are maintained for items, the probability metrics indicating frequencies with which users have selected each item as a next hop after viewing another item. Responsive to the user viewing a baseline item, a probability of selection as a next hop is determined for each of a plurality of items based on the probability metrics. The items are ranked according to the probabilities of selection and presented to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas J. Sullivan, Michael D. Swinson
  • Patent number: 11250453
    Abstract: Embodiments of sales generation, including sales generation employing reverse lead generation using vehicle data systems and methods, are presented herein. In particular, in certain embodiments a user may utilize the vehicle data system to obtain pricing data corresponding to a desired vehicle configuration. When the user is presented with the pricing data associated with the specified vehicle configuration the user may additionally be presented with an upfront price offered by a dealer, where by providing their personal information the user may obtain the name of the dealer offering the upfront price and may additionally be offered the opportunity to purchase the desired, or similar, vehicle at the upfront price.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Philip Inghelbrecht, Scott Painter
  • Patent number: 11244334
    Abstract: Embodiments of systems and methods for the aggregation, analysis, display and monetization of pricing data for commodities in general, and which may be particularly useful applied to vehicles are disclosed. Specifically, in certain embodiments, historical transaction data associated with a particular vehicle configuration may be obtained and processed to determine pricing data associated with the vehicle configuration. The historical transaction data or determined pricing data may then be presented in an intuitive manner.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 8, 2022
    Assignee: TrueCar, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas Taira, Scott Painter, Chris Taylor, Robert Taylor, Michael D. Swinson