There is a revolution underway in trucking and its being led by data science which is shaping a new generation of “software-defined vehicles.” Are you ready for the revolution? 

Software has been deployed on commercial vehicles for years but what’s different now is that manufacturers are using automotive software together with complementary hardware in much more powerful ways to manage the plethora of data that modern vehicles generate. Unlike the single, fixed-function hardware blocks and sensors in yesterday’s and today’s vehicles, these software-enhanced units are more flexible and upgradable, use and share data, and are cloud connected. This means they can be improved over time, similar to what customers expect from other digital devices. It also enables industry to unlock new business models and new features and functionality over the vehicle life cycle through software. 

One major advantage is that these enhanced tractors and trailers can be upgraded and improved after production through software via over-the-air updates. However, there’s much more to this story. 

Software-defined vehicle architecture maximizes the potential of any fixed hardware. Data centers may be a fitting analogy. As with Data Centers, fleets must have one dashboard where all the data interactions, network interactions, and applications can be monitored. The One Dashboard is the location for observing operational stability, security, and safety with appropriate third-party interfaces to support all fleet management and maintenance needs. 

Attend this session and learn how industry is transitioning vehicle architecture to a console-based model to enable inter-vehicle, connected vehicle, data telematic connectivity. We’ll cover what data will be necessary vs. “just nice to have,” how the data will be filtered for better reporting diagnostics and performance (and how their polices can be defined), as well as how the technology will revolutionize the ongoing fleet manager’s goal of observe, analyze and act in fleet operations. 

It’s likely that software-defined vehicles will change fleet operations in as dramatic a fashion as the smartphone revolutionized communications.