About the Customer:
Our customer is a leading Tier-I Supplier of Infotainment Systems, Head-up Display (HUD) Solutions, Digital Instrument Clusters and Battery Management Systems (BMS) for Electric Vehicles.
Business Challenge:
- The customer desired to integrate Telematics features in their Digital Instrument Cluster product.
- This Instrument Cluster solution has been designed for passenger vehicles (four-wheelers, two-wheelers, auto rickshaws and electric vehicles).
- In order to launch this product along with the integrated Telematics Features, the support of Subject Matter Experts (SME) was required in areas of Cloud, Firmware, Device Drivers, and end-to end IoT Technology Stack.
- The customer decided that their in-house teams should focus on the core product development activities and the telematics feature integration activity should be outsourced.
- This made the role of the Product Engineering Services partner very critical.
Watch the Story Unfold:
Embitel Solution:
Our more than a decade long expertise in the Automotive domain along with proven production grade Cloud-Telematics reference designs encouraged the customer to partner with us for this project.
We leveraged our expertise in IoT Sensor Network design and Cloud Interface development, in order to enable the collection of data like speed, GPS location and more.
This was facilitated with the help of MQTT protocol based communication interface.
Our expertise in the automotive domain ensured that we achieve compliance with all the necessary standards while selecting components for hardware design. Additionally, we have leveraged our expertise in firmware, SPI, I2C and CAN protocols.
- We designed and developed a telematics control unit (TCU) within the vehicle, that collects and transmits data through cloud connectivity (GSM) and Bluetooth communication.
- We developed an interface between the telematics control unit and a mobile application.
- Data can be transmitted through Bluetooth when the app is in close proximity to the vehicle. This includes activities such as locking the vehicle or configuring a speed limit to be monitored.
- Cloud connectivity (GSM) is used for data transfer from the automotive telematics control unit when the app is at a remote location. This includes data regarding the vehicle’s speed, location, incidence of an accident, etc.
- In addition to providing information about the vehicle and the engine status in a digital readout format, our solution also included maps and navigation capabilities.
Features:
- The automotive telematics control unit captures the following data:
- GPS location of the vehicle.
- GSM signal strength at a location.
- Inclination of the device.
- Details on temperature and weather.
- Some of the alerts triggered by the product include:
- Accident alert / SOS alert – In the event of an accident an alert is sent to the cloud, and subsequently routed to a predetermined destination (mobile application).
- Location tracking – The location of the vehicle can be monitored from the mobile app.
- Geofencing capabilities – An alert can be sent to the mobile app when the vehicle enters/exits a specific territory.
- Speed limit alert – It is possible to create profiles for which specific speed limits are assigned. When the vehicle crosses the speed limit, an alert is triggered and sent to the cloud. This alert is then routed to the mobile application for the attention of the user.
- The instrument cluster has been integrated with Maps to facilitate navigation capability.
Embitel Impact:
We were able to successfully deliver a robust telematics solution within the desired timeframe.
- The customer was able to deliver the proof of concept (PoC) within 6 months.
- This helped them initiate demos with the OEMs and Suppliers earlier than expected.
Tools and Technologies:
- The Renesas microcontroller unit (MCU) that is part of the hardware was developed using e² studio.
- CAN Analyser Tool was also used for development.
- Mosquitto MQTT server was used for the transmission and reception of messages through the cloud.
- AT Commands were used for GSM connectivity.
- Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) 4.0 was used for establishing Bluetooth connectivity.
