IoT technology provider Aeris has launched a mobility suite to help automotive OEMs accelerate the development and deployment of connected vehicle programmes. German car maker Volkswagen has already begun to roll-out the suite across its development organisation.
 
Aeris is seeking to address the challenge facing automotive OEMs to develop and bring connected vehicle programmes to market as fast as possible to retain customer loyalty in the automotive market, especially in the face of rivalry from technology-based firms such as Google, Apple and Tesla. 
 
With rapid progress being made in electric, autonomous and shared mobility vehicle technologies across the market, many OEMs are finding themselves being limited by first-generation IoT software infrastructure that is cumbersome to work with and unable to support revenue-generating use cases increasingly demanded by customers. Examples of must-have connected car features include over-the-air upgrades, vehicle sharing and on-demand services such as repairs and refuelling.
 
The Aeris Mobility Suite is designed as an end-to-end, cloud-agnostic IoT product suite to help automotive OEMs address these issues. Aeris describes the suite as offering best-in-class, modular software components needed to deploy new connected vehicle programmes globally and rapidly, and upgrade existing software infrastructure to improve customer engagement and retention, all within one year, and at a fraction of the cost.
 
Aeris says its experience in providing proven, modular, end-to-end connected vehicle software can significantly reduce uncertainty and operational complexity. Components of the Aeris Mobility Suite form the basis of global connected vehicle programmes for seven of the world’s largest automotive OEMs, and Aeris’ technology processes more than 1.4 billion IoT messages each day.
 
The company says the technology can deliver a complete, optimised working system in less than six months. This timeline is accelerated by APIs that support each component of the suite, and more than 200 pre-defined vehicle life-cycle and supply chain business processes, including CRM and payments, which facilitate implementation in each OEM’s operating environment.
 
According to Aeris, the suite has five times faster response times with best-in-class security. The company says the many connected vehicle programmes suffer from high latency, which contributes to sub-par user satisfaction and engagement. The suite addresses this issue head-on with a loosely coupled service delivery architecture that delivers less than three second response times, while ensuring military-grade security at network, transportation, and application levels, including two-factor authentication.
 
Aeris says new applications can be developed in 90 days. Competing against software giants in a rapidly evolving connected car market requires on-going agility and speed. The suite’s loosely coupled architecture enables OEMs to deploy innovations in the market, such as car sharing, without touching the vehicle. In addition, the suite includes modular components required to monetise the most in-demand use cases.
 
Among other components, the suite offers over-the-air firmware update capabilities, pre-built application features spanning connected car and fleet management use cases, and subscription management services for global marketplaces spanning hundreds of products and services across multiple brands, models, geographies, languages and currencies.
 
The suite is designed to be a cloud-agnostic foundation for global expansion. Aeris says regional flexibility is a key requirement of every automotive OEM. The suite’s cloud-agnostic capsule architecture streamlines deployment of a global programme across multiple public and private clouds while maintaining local flexibility, autonomy and GDPR-compliance.
 
It is also designed to be modular down to the component level, enabling a highly customisable approach to each user’s requirements. Rest APIs make it possible for OEMs to leverage the entire stack or pick and choose the components needed to deliver on each individual programme.
 
“Aeris has more than a decade of experience supporting automakers on the journey from unconnected product to connected service, and we’ve leveraged our deep, practical know-how to build a platform that does it all,” said Raj Kanaya, CMO and general manager of automotive at Aeris. “The Aeris Mobility Suite enables car companies to immediately deliver on their vision to expand from making and selling cars to offering a constantly evolving array of innovative and engaging subscription-based transportation experiences that work seamlessly in the real world.”
 
• Volkswagen and Aeris have formed Ventic, a joint venture that is the result of a long-term commitment between the two companies in the development and operations of connected vehicle platform technologies. Ventic is jointly owned, with 51 per cent split to Volkswagen and 49 per cent to Aeris. The company will focus on Volkswagen brand vehicles in North America, starting with the launch of the next generation Car-Net in most MY20 vehicles.