AUTOMOTIVE
SMARTER
SAFER
GREENER
GREENER
Fleets
Trucks
Travel
The rising trend for EVs is not exclusive to consumers. Businesses globally are also looking to make the switch.
Supporting the electrification of commercial fleets
That's where Vodafone Business Fleet Analytics can make a difference.
Agriculture. Last-mile logistics. Even public transport. Organisations across sectors are making their fleets more sustainable to reduce costs, win customers and support wider sustainability goals.
But managing electric vehicles in fleets creates new challenges for these organisations.
Fleet managers are responsible for hundreds or even thousands of vehicles on the road at a time. Route-planning, fuel efficiency and improving driving behaviour all fall under their remit.
Fleet managers can access and review this data from a single platform, helping them look after their fleets more efficiently by monitoring for areas where energy consumption can be reduced and costs saved.
We’re working with EVUM Motors to fit its electric trucks with Vodafone telematics units. These collate data from a variety of sensors on each vehicle, monitoring things like battery charge level, location and driver behaviour, and upload it to the cloud via an in-built SIM card.
SMARTER
Manufacturing
Training
Testing
Devices
Fast, reliable connectivity is essential to ensuring changes to the production line can be made in good time.
This enables Ford to capture images at every stage of the weld and analyse them using artificial intelligence (AI), helping spot any areas that need adjusting or re-welding before the products leave the production line.
We are delivering that through a 5G mobile private network (MPN), which can operate at speeds of up to one gigabit per second.
Ford works with experts outside its business, such as The Welding Institute in Cambridge, to develop training programmes for its teams at the Technical Centre. These sessions are often conducted remotely, and that is where immersive technologies like mixed reality can really help.
Training through mixed reality
Mixed reality overlays digital content onto the real world in the form of holograms. These holograms are viewable through specialised headsets.
The technology makes it possible to create training programmes and instructions off-site that can then be directly overlaid on Ford’s machines.
Ford’s teams can also take advantage of on-demand replay features and real-time support from external experts, monitoring the programme live from a remote location.
Vodafone has also launched a mobile private 5G network at the ŠKODA AUTO car plant in Mladá Boleslav, one of the largest production plants in Czech Republic.
Supporting innovation at ŠKODA AUTO
This could help further develop features such as automated car parking.
The 5G standalone connectivity will enable ŠKODA AUTO to further digitise its production and logistics, by supporting the testing of advanced and secure mobile technology that allows robots, machines and sensors to communicate in car production.
Porsche is always looking for ways it can harness new technologies to optimise its cars – whether they’re heading for the road or the racetrack.
Connecting faster testing environments with Porsche
Knowledge is crucial to Porsche's success. When testing new developments, Porsche deploys IoT sensors to help understand everything that happens in and around a car – how factors like the weather, pressure and surface of the track can impact its performance.
By simulating races in the virtual world and then repeating them for real on the test track, Porsche can generate double the amount of data for comparison.
This work relies on the speed and reliability of 5G connectivity.
A 5G boost for Weissach
It’s in an idyllic rural setting, 25 kilometres to the west of Porsche’s main factory, that the ideas for its future cars are born.
Vodafone connects Weissach with the latest 5G mobile connectivity through our leading network, enabling in-car and on-track sensors to share data with researchers in real-time.
Introducing the Economy of Things
You may already be familiar with the Internet of Things, where physical objects connect to the internet, enabling them to share data with each other...
Vodafone operates one of the largest IoT platforms, with more than 150 million connected devices.
Allowing those devices to trade with each other securely, on a user’s behalf.
The next stage?
We call that the Economy of Things, enabled by a new platform: Vodafone Digital Asset Broker (DAB).
And it starts with electric vehicles.
Vodafone, working with Mastercard and Energy Web, launched DAB in a market-leading trial that demonstrated a connected EV communicating autonomously and securely with a charging point.
DAB could help eliminate ‘range anxiety’ - the fear of an EV running out of battery life - and, through Energy Web, enable customers to consciously choose renewable electricity providers.
The service is able to send motorists real-time information on the status and compatibility of the nearest available charging point, and can authorise and pay for their vehicle to recharge. All a driver needs to do is plug it in.
SAFER
Drivers
Vehicles
Infrastructure
Road safety is still a major global challenge.
But what if we could use technology to make Europe’s roads safer for everyone?
Vodafone has launched a new platform called Safer Transport for Europe Platform (STEP), designed to connect road users directly with transport authorities and each other.
Working together for safer roads
Transport authorities today are often limited to delivering safety updates through road infrastructure or a limited number of technologies developed by independent manufacturers, such as in-vehicle navigation systems.
STEP is designed to offer a solution to these challenges.
All users will benefit from free access to the platform and its safety features.
STEP is compatible with all map apps and in-vehicle navigation systems developed by partner organisations.
As a cloud-based platform built on open, industry standards, STEP enables multiple players – governments, transport authorities, vehicle manufacturers, mobility service providers and other mobile network operators – to work together to ensure safety information can be delivered to every road user, no matter what technology they’re using.
Vodafone has been working with Porsche and HERE Technologies to explore how 5G and highly-precise location tracking can improve traffic safety and reduce the number of road incidents in future.
Spotting the hazards drivers can’t
The system uses cameras and sensor systems powered by artificial intelligence and precise mapping technology to determine where a hazard is, even if it is not visible to the driver, with data relayed over Mutli-access Edge Computing (MEC) and our 5G network.
In a 2021 trial at Vodafone’s 5G Mobility Lab in Aldenhoven, we tested a new real-time warning system designed to immediately alert vehicles and their drivers to hazards ahead.
We are witnessing a shift from horsepower to compute power, where cars are becoming digital assets, defined by software engineering.
So, what next?
Gion Baker, Head of Vodafone Automotive writes...
Our role in this transformation is to harness data and technology to improve safety, security and access to mobility.
We can use artificial intelligence models to analyse data and determine the risk of vehicle crime happening in a particular area, allowing us to warn users in advance.
We are already at the forefront of vehicle security – from alarm systems to vehicle tracking across more than 50 countries.
Data can be used in a similar way to support fairer access to the benefits of mobility.
Through technology we can help insurance companies offer their customers policies based on their individual usage, rewarding safer driving behaviour or reducing the costs for vehicles being driven infrequently.
Insurance costs, for example, can sometimes be higher in areas where average incomes are lower and public transport systems less sophisticated. People are therefore excluded.
The technology is almost there – autonomous vehicles are operating in unstructured environments already, enabled by advanced cameras, sensors, precise location tracking technology and low-latency connectivity.
And of course, there is huge potential in autonomous and assisted driving.
The remaining questions are around the regulatory environment and adoption – how and where are we going to see autonomous vehicle technologies really emerge?
We have seen some consumer use-cases already – assisted parking, lane assist features – but its likely we’ll see major commercial adoption first. Imagine the impact assisted driving could have for the safety of delivery trucks, for example, or the efficiency of street cleaning vehicles.
Gion Baker, Head of Vodafone Automotive
For Vodafone, it’s no longer really a case of what the future looks like for the automotive sector. Connected, digital, software-driven mobility is here already.
Our job now is to continue pushing that innovation forward and ensure as many people as possible can benefit from the impacts of technology-led mobility.
Tap below to discover innovation stories from Vodafone Automotive.
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