Autonomous Vehicle Ledger for Smart Contract Liability Enforcement

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Solution Overview

Problem

There is no trusted system that automatically enforces liability arrangements associated with autonomous vehicles, leading to uncertainties in liability assignments due to shifts in vehicle control states.

Innovation Solution

A distributed ledger system is utilized to record and enforce smart contracts, which automatically execute actions based on trigger and decision conditions detected by sensors in autonomous vehicles, ensuring transparent and objective enforcement of liability arrangements.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If a distributed ledger system is implemented to automatically enforce smart contracts, then reliability and trustworthiness of liability assignments are improved, but device complexity and system infrastructure requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvetrustworthiness of liability assignmentsVSAvoidsystem infrastructure

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces a distributed ledger system as an intermediary mechanism that mediates between autonomous vehicles, insurers, and manufacturers to automatically enforce smart contracts. This intermediary layer provides trusted liability assignments without requiring direct trust between parties, resolving the contradiction by adding a mediating infrastructure that enhances reliability while managing complexity through standardized protocols

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables autonomous vehicles to self-report their operational status and liability events directly to the distributed ledger through onboard sensors and processors. This self-service capability reduces the need for manual verification and complex centralized monitoring infrastructure, allowing the system to maintain high reliability while minimizing the complexity of external oversight mechanisms

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Productivity

If automatic enforcement of smart contracts is implemented, then productivity and speed of liability determination are improved, but measurement precision and accuracy of liability assessment may be compromised

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvespeed of liability determinationVSAvoidaccuracy of liability assessment

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements smart contracts that are pre-configured with all necessary liability assessment rules, trigger conditions, and enforcement logic before deployment. This preliminary action ensures that when liability events occur, the system can automatically execute precise assessments without delays, maintaining both high productivity and measurement precision through pre-validating the assessment framework

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The distributed ledger system continuously receives feedback from autonomous vehicle sensors regarding operational status, control state transitions, and liability events. This real-time feedback mechanism allows the system to maintain accurate liability assessments by constantly updating its state based on actual vehicle operations, ensuring both speed and precision in liability determination

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Measurement precision

If comprehensive sensor monitoring and data collection are implemented, then measurement precision of vehicle operations is improved, but loss of energy and data processing requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveprecision of vehicle operation dataVSAvoiddata processing energy

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts only the specific sensor data and operational parameters that are relevant to smart contract trigger conditions and liability assessment from the vast amount of data generated by autonomous vehicle sensors. This selective extraction approach maintains high measurement precision for critical parameters while minimizing energy consumption by avoiding processing of unnecessary data

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements monitoring at the minimum necessary level required to detect smart contract trigger conditions and assess liability accurately. Rather than continuously processing all sensor data, the system activates comprehensive monitoring only when relevant events occur, maintaining measurement precision while reducing overall energy consumption through partial monitoring strategies

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS12579585B2Systems and methods for maintaining a distributed ledger pertaining to autonomous vehicles

Publication Date: 2026.03.17 STATE FARM MUTAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY

AI summary

Methods and systems for maintaining a distributed ledger and/or blockchain of transactions and/or events pertaining to autonomous vehicles and/or smart contracts. An enforcement server may receive indications of transactions and/or events generated by one or more autonomous vehicles. The transactions and/or events may include information relating to a trigger condition and/or a decision condition associated with one or more smart contracts. The enforcement server may route the transaction to the appropriate smart contract to determine whether a trigger condition has been satisfied. When a trigger condition is satisfied, the enforcement server may automatically perform an action to enforce the smart contract and/or update the distributed ledger. In some aspects, the distributed ledger may record events associated with autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicle technology or system usage, including events associated with transitioning between manual and autonomous control, or vice versa, of one or more autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles.