Open Platform Telematics – A Win-Win Vehicle Tracking Solution

Open Platform Telematics – A Win-Win Vehicle Tracking Solution

Clive Humby once said, “Data is the new oil.”

We are slowly, but surely, realizing the depths of this quote.

The 21st century is considered the era of continuous innovation, and performance optimization and data is the driving factor behind all of this. As vehicles play a key role in our everyday lives, let’s look at how data collection and analysis through open platform telematics will lead to a safer and transparent on-road experience for all parties involved.

Understanding Telematics

Telematics is commonly used to describe the process of data collection and analysis from vehicles via telecommunication devices. The data retrieved through these devices can be used to unlock the performance and safety features of the vehicle.

As the number of data collection devices (IoT sensors, hardware, electronic logging devices, etc.) are increasingly integrated into both private vehicles and fleets, the complexity of tracking all the performance metrics under a single platform is increasing as well.

That is where Open Telematics or Open Platform Telematics comes into play.

Into the Realm of Open Platform Telematics

Open platform telematics could be perceived as an extended arm of traditional vehicle telematics. Let’s think from the perspective of a fleet manager. Typically, a fleet manager would track the following metrics to assess vehicle and driver performance:

1. Vehicle Performance Metrics – Engine diagnostics, idling statistics, fuel consumption, tracking vehicle speed, tire pressure monitoring
2. Fleet Optimization – Dynamic route optimization, fleet benchmarking, dash cams
3. Safety Feature Monitoring – Tire pressure monitoring, temperature monitoring, predictive maintenance, and weather logs
4. Driver Behaviour – Geofencing, vehicle tracking, rash driving (by measuring speed and g-force), trip miles and braking zones, Electronic Driver Logs (ELDs)

The list goes on! Due to the wide variety of sensors available today, fleet owners can even monitor other metrics that they deem important to assess their fleets’ performance.

With the help of open platform telematics, fleet managers can have an eagle-eye view of their entire fleet in one, unified User Interface (UI). Apart from having a unified UI to ease user experience, here are the other game-changing features of an open telematics platform:

• Due to the open nature of the platform and seamless integration of APIs, data can be accessed by the administrator as well as the driver.
• The Software Development Kit (SDK) in open telematics is easy to use, allowing easy customization of the telematics platform based on the needs of the fleet.
• It allows easy integration with third-party solutions to offer greater scalability when compared to a traditional telematics solution.
• Data is analysed using cloud server capabilities thereby eliminating the need for data to be locally analysed within the vehicle using a separate device/software.
• The platform provides increased data security to avoid data breaches.

Benefits of Using an Open Platform Telematics System

• The usage of open telematics is not just restricted to fleets; OEMs can use this as a performance monitoring feature by making critical vehicle data available to customers. Doing so increases transparency and builds trust between the OEM and the customer.
• As data is monitored on a single UI, one can easily be trained to make sense of the analysed metric.
• Through predictive maintenance, fleets can reduce the cost of operations by tackling an issue well before it gets out of hand.
• IoT is an integral part of telematics, OEMs can pair up with 3^rd party service providers to develop proprietary IoT mobile apps for seamless data accessibility and customer recognition.

For OEM’s or Fleets looking to optimise performance and provide seamless, secure, and connected customer experience, integrating telematics should be non-negotiable!

Embitel is a vehicle telematics service provider, specializing in full-stack IoT services with expertise in Artificial Intelligence. Our engineers can help you create custom fleet management systems and high-end telematics solutions.

Open Platform Telematics – The Road Ahead

While requesting permission to access telematics data remains the best practice, open telematics provides an opportunity for users to have complete control of the access to the data generated by their assets. With data being transparent to customers/fleet management companies and OEMs upon being granted certain permissions, the solution can bridge the gap between customer needs and OEMs’ goals.

Apart from reducing the total cost of operations, open platform telematics is a technology that can revolutionize the way OEMs provide after-sales services to their customers, thereby adding an additional stream to their revenue.

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