A Pioneering e-SUV Manufacturer Raises the Bar of its Connected Electric SUVs

Sibros partners with AWS to enable a Indian SUV Manufacturer to raise the bar of its Connected Electric SUVs.

A leading Indian SUV manufacturer has recently unveiled its electric vision with a range of new electric SUVs. This customer wanted to raise the bar in the areas of safety and security, maintenance and service management, seamless over-the-air software updates, sustainable personal mobility solutions, and immersive experiences for drivers. 

The challenges were a lack of data logging capabilities, limited software/firmware release management, and disparate in-vehicle systems.

The customer, using Sibros’ Deep Connected Platform-with data logging, software updates, and remote commands-now benefits from aspects like rapid prototyping, new revenue streams, and vehicles in sync, to save cost, create user convenience, and offer the digital lifestyle.

Our customer is a leading automotive OEM with a new line-up of electric SUVs, positioned under its well-known SUV brand and an all-new electric-only brand. The customer had defined five objectives:

• Provide safety and security, mainly by collecting and analyzing critical data in real-time, thus identifying and mitigating potential safety and security risks.
• Optimize (proactive) maintenance and service management with a solution that provides real-time insights into vehicle performance.
• Ensure the successful implementation of software updates for every Electronic Control Unit (ECU) in a High-Performance Compute (HPC) system with multiple operating systems. Enhance the overall performance of the HPC system.
• Offer sustainable personal mobility solutions to improve the efficiency of vehicles, ultimately reducing the carbon footprint and promoting sustainable mobility.
• Deliver connected and digitally immersive experiences that, for example, allow drivers to understand their vehicles better and improve their driving habits.

The customer faced various serious obstacles in the achievement of these goals:

• A lack of data logging to monitor vehicle performance. Without proper and granular data collection, the identification of issues of vehicle performance-and thus subsequently troubleshooting and maintenance-remains haphazard.
• Limited capabilities of software/firmware release management. This can lead to delays in releasing updates and patches, which in turn may adversely affect vehicle safety and security as well as performance.
• Multiple vendors and disparate systems made the process of over-the-air updates of the vehicle software complex, time-consuming, and delay prone.
• The complexity arising from different vehicle software configurations might lead to delays in troubleshooting and maintenance, affecting the driver experience.

To achieve the goals and overcome the barriers, the OEM adopted a comprehensive approach that involves standardization of processes and investments in technology to improve data collection and analysis as well as software updates. The core solution to use was the Sibros Deep Connected Platform (DCP).

With its Deep Logger, the DCP allows to to collect live data from the entire vehicle. The data captured is meaningful because the logging can be configured with complex conditions-without the need for coding.

Sibros’ Deep Updater supports full vehicle software updates for Posix-based ECUs and embedded ECUs. With Sibros, the customer can manage their HPC platform, handle multiple operating systems in parallel, simplify the complexity of integrating various protocols and messages, and conduct software version management in the cloud.

Sibros leverages AWS IoT Core and AWS Kinesis for creating connected vehicles that can gather and analyze valuable data from the vehicle's sensors and systems. With AWS IoT Core, the OEM can connect the vehicles to the cloud and securely transmit data without worrying about device management or scalability issues. By using these AWS services, the customer will create a connected vehicle that provides a seamless driving experience for customers while enhancing vehicle safety and performance.

As a result of using the DCP, the customer saw improvements on many fronts.

• It begins with rapid prototyping with software configuration management and on-demand debugging during development and testing phases. 
• Later, they can achieve a more efficient and reliable HPC system, which will lead to increased productivity and reduced downtime.
• The OTA update process is standardized and streamlined across all regions, which enables delivery of updates quickly and efficiently to vehicles worldwide and saves cost and time with dealerships. 
• A standard software configuration across all vehicles simplifies the maintenance and troubleshooting process. 

All these aspects and better vehicle reliability in particular will let drivers enjoy a better overall driver and ownership experience. Lastly, new business models mean innovative revenue sources, as the customer can now offer premium features and services through software updates.

In conclusion, the DCP does not only help to overcome challenges, but provides opportunities for growth and innovation.