Cars connected to the internet are not new; they’ve been going on for over two decades, but the data transmitted and how we use it are going through a revolution.
Telemetry has been in use in commercial vehicles for a very long time. Pretty much all buses use real-time telemetry and monitoring to not only pick up issues with individual buses but also improve fleet efficiency.
In the car world, we see this on cars that report OBD status to the OEM and potentially a customer app. This is not just for telling you when something has broken, but much more importantly, it helps tell you something needs to be done before it goes wrong. It does this by monitoring systems and comparing them to known behaviours. For instance, as a combustion engine warms up, the oil, coolant and air temperatures rise at a certain rate, and if this rate deviates from the norm, the system can tell if the oil is getting old and needs changing or if there is a developing issue with bearings etc. as each fault has a unique profile.
Servicing on demand rather than on a schedule allows the vehicle to get the best treatment without incurring unnecessary costs. For instance, a car that does a hard city route may need oil changes more often than one that does easy motorway miles.
OEM telemetry can be part of a bigger system, though, where the back office system can suggest a service booking slot to the customer and automatically order the correct parts so everything is ready on the day. This is how Tesla operated from the beginning; from what I hear, most OEMs operate the same way.
This can also give customers more confidence because it’s the car demanding service rather than a dealer or garage owner, reducing the misconception that garages are doing unnecessary work.
As this rolls out over the years, the number of failures due to poor maintenance or ignoring that ‘funny noise’ may well be reduced, and the amount of repair work may drop as a result. Or maybe people will keep on ignoring warnings and drive it until it breaks as usual. Who knows.
The customer app can also remind them when the MOT is due and help bundle servicing and testing together to minimise disruption; the AA Vixa system already does this. And because they get notified well in advance, it takes the MOT panic away, hopefully reducing those awkward phone calls where their MOT has run out and they desperately need the car, but we don’t have the capacity to help them that day.
Make no mistake, smart diagnostics and telemetry are changing the industry, making an integrated maintenance system that is proactive, not reactive, with machines doing diagnostics, parts ordering and work scheduling. This will reduce costs to the customer, improve vehicle reliability, and give the OEM huge amounts of valuable data.
But for the motor trade, it’s going to be a very different world to the one we used to know.
Ralph Hosier – C.Eng, B.Eng, MIET, MIMI, MGoMW