
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.
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.