Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reality Check column. We’ve gathered a group of visionaries and veterans in the mobile industry to give their insights into the marketplace.
About 65 years ago, the Brazilian company Viação Águia Branca (VAB) began to work in transportation. It remained a pioneer in this field for many years. Recently, it innovated again when it started monitoring its buses using machine-to-machine (M2M) in the GPRS network.
Using M2M communication, more than 700 buses are constantly monitored with some applications that help people in their daily lives, such as:
1. Bus location—By contacting the call center, passengers can find out if their bus has already passed their location or how long it will take before another bus arrives. This feature gives passengers greater convenience, comfort and flexibility in using bus transportation.
2. Monitoring driver behavior—All bus drivers are monitored 24/7 through tilt sensors, acceleration sensors, braking sensors, fuel consumption sensors and even cameras that record from the same position as the driver’s line of sight as well as the bus interior.
At the end of the day, all this monitoring has only one objective: to increase passenger comfort and safety.
Currently, there are other sensors and applications in development and testing, since the results from this first phase of the project pleased both the company and its customers.
Unfortunately, in the course of the project, not everything went so easily. At the time the project began, there were no suppliers in Brazil that offered a complete M2M solution, so different suppliers had to be contacted for construction of the final product. The side effects of this included more time invested in the project and higher risks with integration.
Because of this, I suggest that Brazilian companies that are starting similar projects should analyze market changes to see if they can reduce the number of suppliers involved in their solution.
As a result of this project, Viação Águia Branca was able to reduce fuel consumption, increase bus safety and learn nearly everything that is happening with its entire fleet in real time.
Aldo Navarro Zuquini Junior is IT general manager at Brazilian Grupo Águia Branca.
