Over the past few decades, the vehicles that we drive have become much more intelligent. The use of on-board computer, sensors and controllers which makes up a smart vehicle have led to many of the advancements that we have seen in the transportation space. Vehicles are now producing more power using smaller engines, all while reducing emissions.
However, the transportation sector is a large and competitive landscape, both for the manufacturers of equipment, as well as for those who operate them. They are constantly looking for ways to reduce costs, to simplify maintenance schedules and to offer better service to customers to grow their business.
IoT builds upon the incredible volume of data that a vehicle produces and makes it both more accessible as well as more actionable. Manufacturers can learn more about their vehicle to make adjustments and improvements, while fleet operators can better predict a failure before it happens.
It should be noted that this article does not focus on the Mercedes-Benz Brand Micro Compact Car Smart car ("Swatch Mercedes Art") car. Clearly this is a collaboration between The Swatch Group and Mercedes-Benz. It also does not specifically cover the the Smart Fortwo, a rear-engine, electric, rear-wheel-drive, 2-passenger hatchback city car manufactured and marketed by the Smart division of Daimler AG, introduced in 1998, now in its third generation.
For the most part, the vehicle leaves the assembly line with much of the capability that is required to gather data for an IoT solution. Each sensor, module and control system is able to report its status via an on-board connector, such as the ODBII connector on most passenger vehicles. The first addition to enable communication is to be able to take the data that is produced and bring it into your IoT application.
In some cases, vehicle manufacturers have installed cellular components that allow this data to be sent without the need for a cellular gateway to be added. In most cases, a cellular gateway connects to the vehicles diagnostic port to gather data. In some cases, a user/manufacturer may wish to gather other data, such as the opening of a door or the temperature of a storage area. In those scenarios, sensors are used to provide that data in real-time.
As you can imagine, a vehicle produces a ton of data that may not have a lot of value, at least in real-time. A sensor that alerts its status once per second will give 3600 “I’m OK” messages per hour, which may not be of value for a technician. They are instead looking immediately for exceptions and then to look at historical data showing trends over time. This is where the cellular gateway can help. They can be set up to send certain alerts in real-time and then the vehicle can upload its entire update over a Wi-Fi connection when it is back at the depot.
On its face, this data may not be in a format that is useful for a technician or engineer. This is where the applications can help. They will allow for easy to view, useable information, such as the location of their vehicles and if one were to have an accident. The final step involves taking the vast amounts of information from the vehicle to allow for predictions of possible issues.
Imagine a sensor is reporting a temperature level that is just slightly above average, but still in a normal range. This data may be ignored by a technician as a one-time event. However, if the combination of hours’ worth of readings show a very slight uptick pattern, and this is a situation that often predicts failure, the technician may pull the device out of service for a few minutes to make an adjustment. This may save a costly and timely repair from having to be done.
This same trend information will also be of value when it comes to the procurement of a smart vehicle. Trends may indicate that the estimated repair cost for a particular vehicle was not as planned and it may also show that a vehicle may not need to be replaced as often as predicted.