One of the challenges facing carmakers as they roll out connected services is ensuring they can stand over their performance by getting the most value out of these services. Any network service demands granular monitoring, not just to meet customer expectations, but to build up a better understanding of consumption and usage patterns.
Many components enable different types of vehicle-to-everything communication (V2X), which makes overall visibility a challenge. For country-wide IoT solutions this is not necessarily a problem. The MNO (Mobile Network Operator) could provide service level agreements, but for carmakers selling vehicles into over one hundred countries, connecting with different operators, let alone monitoring the network performance, is a major challenge.
Performance and usage
The amount of data cars consume and share is about to grow dramatically. With 5G cars will have seamless interaction with smart transport systems and forecourt services. Data transfer for Over-The-Air technical updates or entertainment services like the kids streaming the Disney channel in the backseat will only escalate. At Cubic we have responded to demand by developing software-driven network skills and leveraging NFV (Network Functions Virtualization) architecture to identify and control traffic at an IP level.
Cubic has visibility of the data streams going in and out of the car, so we can provide manufacturers with a real-time view of traffic regardless of the operator. It can be a complete macro view of a global fleet of cars, or we can go micro and dig down into a single vehicle view, in a specific country, on a particular network. We can work with our MNO partners to take analysis down to cellsite ID level if necessary.
Not only do we embed eUICCs for mobile subscription management in target markets, we bring data from various sources together – multiple sensors, infotainment and navigations systems – for real-time micro monitoring. We provide proactive alerts that call out issues before they become a serious problem, and we offer reporting to deliver continuous improvement.
This is invaluable to carmakers selling connected cars into different markets. What makes Cubic stand apart is that it can visualise data for carmakers on usage per vehicle; or cross-reference models with network performance to see if there are any technical variables; or analyse usage that indicates how different types of customers favour different models and services. These specific features are not commonly offered by MNOs.
Valuable insights
At Cubic we load data from multiple sources into our data lake where it can be mined for a variety of uses cases. It could be real-time monitoring, sending an amber alert – by email or other preferred channels – if there is an outage. Cubic manages the relationship with the MNO and can go to them with evidence of a service failure.
Data can be tracked and analysed to surface granular insights into every aspect of connected services – the model of car, the country it’s being used in, driver behaviour etc. – to build up a detailed understanding of the proposition and its value. It can be used to provide visibility into new services to see what works and what doesn’t; or to assess the performance of the same component from different suppliers to better inform procurement decisions.
All this matters because car buyers have changed. They are looking for more than horsepower, comfort and fuel efficiency; they want connectivity solutions for driver assistance and infotainment; they expect an experience that’s not just defined by the engineering and design characteristics of the car. The kind of macro to micro monitoring Cubic provides will be essential for carmakers as they evaluate new services to see which ones deliver the most value.
If you would like to you learn more about the award-winning Cubic Insights solution, download a copy of our brochure here.
