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How to Slash Fleet Insurance Claims TODAY (Hint: It Isn’t Telematics)

November 24, 2020

How to Slash Fleet Insurance Claims TODAY (Hint: It Isn’t Telematics) NOVEMBER 24, 2020 // JEFF VARICK If you’re relying on telematics information to help reduce insurance claims, you still have a giant opportunity that you haven’t even begun to tap into yet. Telematics data can help you track and understand exactly what your vehicles are doing. It provides valuable information for training and educating your drivers to improve their driving. That’s important, but at the end of the day, this approach is like fixing a problem that already exists. What if you could prevent the problem altogether? If you’ve been investing in telematics systems, you’ve addressed one critical part of reducing insurance claims. Now it’s time to address the critical part: preventing incidents in the first place.  For example, take front-to-rear collisions, which account for 20 percent of collision-related injuries each year. Even your safest drivers can get distracted, no matter how much training you provide. But advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) actively alert drivers before an accident occurs — reducing front-to-rear collisions by as much as 27 percent.  If you can prevent more accidents, you’ll slash your workman’s compensation and other insurance claims. Once a collision happens, you can’t undo it. A single accident can cause a lot of heartburn and headache, and in the worst-case scenario somebody loses a life. We speak with fleet managers who have lost drivers to accidents that could have been prevented with the right ADAS solution. Brandmotion has a portfolio of ADAS products that are ideal for reducing insurance claims and preventing costly collisions. Let’s look at four solutions that are specifically designed to address fleets’ most common safety issues.  Safety Products Designed for Your Fleet’s Top Needs ADAS+ Give your driver critical time to react when quick thinking is needed. Brandmotion’s Advanced Driver Assistance System ADAS+ provides forward crash, lane departure and pedestrian detection warnings for any vehicle, along with the benefit of a built-in 2-channel digital video recorder (DVR) for crash recording. The system offers a seatbelt harness that vibrates, plus a visual and audible dashboard alert.  Radar Blind Spot Monitor Lower your collision risk and give your fleet drivers complete confidence when changing lanes or backing out of a parking spot. Our Blind Spot Monitoring System is an OEM-grade device that gives an audible blind spot alert and highly integrated visual signal. OEM-quality Radar Blind Spot Monitoring systems can reduce accidents by 23percent. As a bonus, our Blind Spot Monitoring system provides a cross-traffic alert when backing up. The device watches for cross traffic behind the vehicle to help prevent collisions while in Reverse. This solution can reduce cross-traffic accidents by 22 percent. Backup Camera and Backup Sensors Our fleet rear vision cameras are designed for high duty environments. And we offer the right selection of solutions to cover all of the vehicles in your fleet. Brandmotion’s Backup Camera can help reduce rear collisions by seven percent. Our backup sensors, which give an audible proximity warning, reduce collisions by 17 percent. Combined, the two systems can reduce accidents by up to 42 percent!  FullVUE™ Mirror The FullVUE Mirror is quickly becoming very popular among fleets, because it lets your drivers see more than ever before. In many trucks and vans, drivers can’t see out of the back. Cargo is blocking the view, or there is no window. The FullVUE Mirror replaces the traditional rearview mirror by displaying an HD streaming video feed from a rear-mounted camera.  Drivers see a 3X wider, crisp, unobstructed rear and blind spot view with no obstructions.  Your drivers can know exactly what’s going on behind them, even if your fleet trucks have no rear windows. That translates into fewer incidents on the road, from backing up or from blind spots and changing lanes.  The mirror also comes with a front-facing camera, a highly integrated dash cam, and it continuously records front and rear video. G shock technology locks down the video if there’s ever an accident, so you can review the incident afterwards. What’s the Right ADAS Product to Start With? You can start decreasing collisions and insurance claims right now, by strategically choosing the ADAS device that makes the most sense for your fleet. Look at your accident history and assess the most common (or most costly) issues your fleet is facing.  For front-end collisions: ADAS+ For rear collisions: Backup camera and sensors or FullVUE Mirror For blind lane change or cross traffic issues: Blind spot monitoring For rear collisions and blind spot monitoring: FullVUE Mirror After outfitting your fleet with your first ADAS device, you may identify additional safety issues that can be eliminated. When you’re ready, add to your ADAS investment and keep reducing those incidents and claims. Reduce Insurance Claims TODAY Brandmotion outfits you with aftermarket safety products for the fleet you have NOW. Our goal is to help reduce accidents in the U.S. — today, not as you purchase new vehicles. We believe that fleet managers shouldn’t have to wait years (or decades) to fully equip their vehicles with the most sophisticated safety equipment available.  The fleet that you have on the road today can have OEM-quality products, at affordable prices. We can also train your drivers and install the equipment for you. Installation time won’t be costly, either. We’re quick and efficient because we know that downtime is money. Find out more about the ADAS products designed for your fleet’s top needs. Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

How Brandmotion Helped SmartColumbus Design and Implement a Multi-Vehicle V2X Implementation for USDOT

November 1, 2020 News

How Brandmotion Helped SmartColumbus Design and Implement a Multi-Vehicle V2X Implementation for USDOT SUMMARY As the winner of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) first-ever Smart City Challenge, Columbus, Ohio, is on a mission to be the model for connected cities in the United States. The vision of Smart Columbus is to empower residents to live their best lives through responsive, innovative, and safe mobility solutions. Columbus was awarded $50 million in grant funding from the USDOT’s Smart City Challenge. The project, called the Connected Vehicle Environment (CVE), is seeking to serve as a model for other cities that intend to integrate connected vehicles into their transportation networks. The City assembled an implementation team that included Brandmotion Solutions to implement a vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) network. Thanks in part to Brandmotion Solutions’ deep connected vehicle expertise, the project will serve as a model for future Smart Cities. This case study highlights the keys to success of the connected vehicle integrations in Columbus. Results That Speak for Themselves Our latest case study shows how Brandmotion led the integration and installation of vehicle-side onboard units. In this case study you’ll discover: The key ingredients that made the Columbus project successful New technological solutions that provided critical driver feedback The depth of expertise Brandmotion Solutions introduced to the project “Brandmotion’s work really aligns well with the overall goals of the Smart Columbus program, and that’s to provide enhanced mobility and safety to all of our residents within Columbus as we travel about the City .” — Andrew Wolpert, Deputy Program Manager, Smart Columbus Download the Case Study Download the full case study and receive the latest updates from Brandmotion Solutions. Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

Why Dash Cams Don’t Reduce Fleet Accidents

October 6, 2020 Industry News

Why Dash Cams Don’t Reduce Fleet Accidents OCTOBER 6, 2020 // JEFF VARICK Every week, we talk with fleet managers who are using dash cams to help prevent collisions on the road. Many have even integrated the dash cams with their driver monitoring program to help track their drivers’ safety in real time. These fleet managers are often surprised when we tell them that a dash cam won’t help prevent collisions — even when combined with telematics. The problem isn’t the technology. Dash cams and telematics provide valuable information that can help you improve driver safety, overall. But they weren’t designed to prevent accidents. Let’s take a look at what dash cams and driver monitoring programs can and can’t do. After that, I’ll help you figure out what kind of solutions you need to proactively prevent collisions in real time. What Does a Dash Cam Actually Do? A dash cam records events and saves them for review later. This can be extremely helpful if an accident occurs and the other driver seeks damages and compensation. Fleet vehicles tend to be a magnet for desperate drivers looking to cash in on a lawsuit, and a dash cam can prove your driver’s innocence. That device alone can save you thousands of dollars in a single incident. But dash cams can’t alert the driver of an oncoming collision, and they can’t alert fleet managers if there’s an accident. Telematics can tell you if there was a hard braking incident or a failure of power, but there’s no active feedback to the driver to help avoid collisions. Dash cams are purely after-the-fact devices. They tell you why a collision occurred. From there, you can give a driver more training to help prevent future incidents — but the fact remains that your vehicle is in the repair shop. Likewise, driver monitoring programs let you see where your drivers are at all times, see their speed, if they’ve had any hard braking incidents, if the vehicle needs any maintenance or repair. They provide accountability after the fact. But telematics won’t help avoid a collision. It sends vehicle data to you, but nothing alerts the driver. When it comes to actually preventing accidents, what you need is ADAS. What Is ADAS? Aftermarket advanced driver-assistance systems — or ADAS — are safety technologies that are designed to proactively prevent a collision before it occurs. ADAS devices use sensors that are installed on the vehicle to monitor the road and alert the driver when it detects a possible oncoming collision. An alert could be anything from a visual indicator to an audio signal or a vibration. The first ADAS equipment was first introduced about 50 years ago, but the field has more recently started taking off, and new ADAS technologies are continually being developed to help prevent different types of collisions. For example: Blindspot monitoring and detection. Radar sensors alert drivers if another vehicle is in the blindspot when changing lanes. Blind Spot monitoring systems are proven to reduce injury-producing crashes by 23%. Rear vision systems. Backup cameras help guide fleet drivers when the rear view is obstructed. According to the IIHS, rear view cameras reduce rear crashes by 17%. They’re a must for every fleet. Parking assistance systems. Cameras help guide drivers into parking spaces. Parking sensors reduce rear crashes by 18%, but in conjunction with a rear view camera, they reduce crashes by 38%. That means by adding rear sensors to a vehicle with a backup camera, or vice versa, as a fleet manager you can “stack” the benefits. Collision avoidance systems. Radar or lidar sensors watch for quickly approaching oncoming objects and send an alert to the driver. A forward collision warning system installed on your fleet vehicle can reduce front-to-rear crashes by 27%. Lane departure warnings. Sensors detect lane drift and alert the driver. Installing a system on your fleet can reduce lane departure accidents by 21%. Finding the Right ADAS for Your Fleet Telematics data can help you understand why collisions are occurring in your fleet. If you’ve been collecting vehicle data for years, you know what your greatest problems are — whether it’s speeding, blind spots, backup collisions, lane drift, or something else. You can use that data to train drivers, but wouldn’t it be better if you could prevent those problems in the first place? A telematics-plus-ADAS approach combines the best of both worlds — trend analysis and proactive prevention. Use the data you’ve collected over time to determine the ADAS equipment you need most. If you’ve had ten collisions in the last year because drivers couldn’t see in their blindspot, blindspot monitoring may be more important to you than front collision avoidance. Upgrading to ADAS once meant replacing your entire fleet with new vehicles that came with the equipment — sometimes at the highest trim levels. But Brandmotion provides OEM-quality safety products for the aftermarket. You can equip your entire fleet with the best safety equipment today — not over a period of years. Brandmotion retrofit products are known throughout the industry for their seamless integration, OEM-level quality, and innovative approaches to the biggest problems in vehicle safety. Our customers demand reliable, high-end safety solutions that integrate seamlessly with the vehicle. Find out more about the ADAS products designed for your fleet’s top needs. Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

Could Your OBU Installation Hurt Your CV Deployment?

September 29, 2020 Industry News

Could Your OBU Installation Hurt Your CV Deployment? SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 // JEFF VARICK If you’re running a connected vehicle deployment, your onboard unit (OBU) system installation could be negatively impacting the success of your project. Some CV project managers think of the OBU installation as simply hiding the OBU, mounting monitors and connecting cables. The integration might not be pretty, but it’s a temporary setup. What’s most important is collecting data and getting the project done on time. Right? Absolutely. But ironically, an inelegant integration jeopardizes those priorities. The success of your CV deployment is riding on an OBU integration that’s seamless with the vehicle. Clunky equipment and ungraceful installations can distract drivers, affecting your CV project in ways that you don’t even realize. In a connected vehicle deployment, seamless integrations aren’t luxuries — they help guarantee that the equipment installation doesn’t compromise your data collection, driver safety, or the project timeline. Here’s how. Related: Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Better Data Collection If you don’t prioritize a seamless OBU integration to the vehicle, you could be compromising the integrity of your connected vehicle data collection. Let’s say your integrator runs a bundle of cables along the floor, behind the brake pedal. As drivers get in and out of their cars, the floor mats in some vehicle models shift, causing the cables to bunch up and create resistance against the brake. Or imagine that you’ve routed the antenna cables through the trunk, where the onboard unit is placed. One day, in a rush, the driver throws a golf bag in the trunk and it disconnects the antenna. The monitor is plugged in, but the driver never notices that the antenna is disconnected. The goal of any integrator should be to install OBUs in a way that will protect the integrity of your data. Avoid New Driving Risks The whole idea of a connected vehicle deployment is to reduce risks on the road, but the wrong integration approach can actually introduce new safety hazards. We’ve seen instances when OBU monitors were mounted to the dash or to the front windshield with a suction cup. While the screens displayed valuable information to drivers, they also created distractions and blocked the view. Some installations use suction cups to mount equipment to the windshield. Suction cups are notoriously unreliable, and yet we see them used all the time. It doesn’t take much — a sudden stop or a minor fender bender — to knock a device loose and hit the driver in the head. Or it could fall to the floor and cause a dangerous distraction while the driver tries to keep it from sliding under the accelerator. Look for an integrator who will be able to do more than simply follow the scope of services. Find a company that can push back, spot pitfalls you don’t see, and design innovative, integrated solutions to meet those issues. Prevent Deployment Setbacks When OBU equipment gets in the way of the driving experience, participants often complain. They may want to exit the study early, or request a change to the installation in their vehicle. Rework and extra maintenance take time. If you discover the installations have created a data collection problem, you’ll need to reinstall every vehicle. Recalls can set your project back by weeks — possibly even months, depending on the size of your deployment. There’s No Substitute for Experience In one project, we brought in local installers to help add OBUs to vehicles. They had to route the antenna cable through vehicles’ trunks, which meant going through the rain seal on the trunk. Any time you go through a seal on a trunk or door or window, you need to add drip loops to prevent leaking in the vehicle. This was especially important, because we were working in a state that gets a lot of rainfall. Perhaps you can guess where this is going. Even good installers don’t always know the hundreds of little details you need to account for in a CV deployment integration. That kind of thing comes only from experience. And on a connected vehicle deployment, there’s no substitute for experience. What Should You Expect from a Connected Vehicle Integrator? It’s a lot like autonomous vehicles. In the beginning, the vehicle does a terrible job of driving by itself. It needs to learn as it goes. As it experiences different types of scenarios and driving conditions, the vehicle becomes adept. Vehicle integration is like that. If you hire an integrator with broad and deep experience in connected vehicle integration, you can avoid the problems and setbacks other deployments often face. You have a lot riding on your connected vehicle deployment. Don’t settle for standard, run-of-the-mill installation services. Insist on a thoughtful approach that seamlessly integrates the OBU and Driver Info Display with the vehicle. You’ll get better data, keep drivers safe, and protect your project timeline. Need help with your CV deployment? No one has more experience with OBU integration than Brandmotion Solutions. Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

How OEM Integration Can Boost Your Concept Vehicle Demonstrations

September 17, 2020 Industry News

How OEM Integration Can Boost Your Concept Vehicle Demonstrations SEPTEMBER 17, 2020 // JEFF VARICK You’re introducing a cutting-edge technology into a concept demonstration vehicle. While you want to be modest about it, you have to admit — it’s pretty darn impressive. But let’s be honest: the way you’ve integrated your tech into the vehicle isn’t going to impress anyone. You have all the engineers you need, and you have complete capability to develop the technology. But you don’t have the resources to go the extra mile and seamlessly integrate it into the production vehicle. And that’s not a small thing. You’ve got to make the most of every demonstration, because it isn’t just the project on the line — it’s your reputation. Those kinds of stakes demand a seamless vehicle integration. Outsourced OEM-grade vehicle integration services can give your concept vehicle technology demonstration the edge it needs. Let’s look at the benefits that can make the difference for your next concept demo. Your Book Is Being Judged by Its Cover We’ve seen more than one concept technology that comes to the demonstration with cables running everywhere. OEMs are underwhelmed, because they can’t get past the looks of the equipment. As innovative as the technology is, the presentation of it has dampened the buyers’ opinion. It’s a little embarrassing to present an innovative vehicle technology that looks like it was slapped together by Doc Brown. It feels crude and unfinished. Even if the system works perfectly, it looks and feels like it’s easy to break. That doesn’t inspire confidence or excitement. Your technology demonstration is a sales tool, and it needs to start selling from the first glance — even before you turn the key. The most successful concept demonstrations look like they just rolled off the production line with the vehicle. They fit and function seamlessly, and they already live up to the OEM’s reputation and image. An OEM integrator can give your tech that kind of treatment. Performance You Can Count On Exposed cables and a bulky installation are an open invitation for disaster. Someone can accidentally trip over the cables, disconnect them, or knock components loose. It’s also all too easy for engineers to make last-minute modifications, against better judgment. The worst thing that can happen during a demonstration is presenting brand-new, innovative tech that doesn’t work because something got tampered with. You can’t tell the customer, “Well it worked yesterday.” It’s embarrassing, and it impacts your company’s reputation for future demonstrations. There’s also the wear and tear factor. Repeated use isn’t kind to concept products that are merely attached to the vehicle. If you don’t have stable connection points and tuck the wires out of the way, your demonstration technology won’t last very long. An OEM integrator can make your demonstration technology durable enough for showing after showing. Safer Demos with Fewer Distractions Seamless OEM integration makes your demonstration technology safer, too. When you drive it on a demo, you won’t be distracted by hanging cables or components that aren’t securely mounted. Nothing is fastened awkwardly to the dash, blocking the forward view. We did a project for a developer who wanted a huge display on the dashboard. We noticed that it would block the driver’s view, so we installed the monitor over the existing display. We hinged it so that they could lift the monitor and still access the controls underneath it. They loved the innovative approach, and the demonstration was a greater success. Complete OEM Integration with Brandmotion Solutions Brandmotion Solutions offers end-to-end integration services for concept vehicle technologies. We’ll start with a kickoff meeting to look at the vehicle and the parts, and to gain a full understanding of what you want. Then our craftsmen get to work. Our services cover the broadest range of capabilities needed to complete your entire project: Creative Integration Design. When showcasing your automotive technology, it’s critical that it looks OEM. We start every project by studying the concept and the vehicle to determine the best design for seamless integration, and then hand-build the first integration parts. Part Scanning and 3-D Modeling. Our dedicated in-house CAD team scans hand-built parts and creates 3-D models for the component parts that will be fabricated. Each design will go through several iterations, until they perfectly integrate with the vehicle. 3-D Printing. We create 3-D printed prototype parts to ensure they connect to the vehicle like an OEM component would. If the prototype is off even in the slightest, we’ll modify and reprint it until it looks like an original part of the production vehicle. Sheet Metal & Fiberglass Fabrication. Once the prototyping is perfected, we begin in-house component builds. Our fabrication team can produce any sheet metal or fiberglass part to seamlessly integrate your technology. OEM Quality Painting. Your concept technology needs to look and feel like it was always a part of the production vehicle. Our meticulous texture and color matching process ensures that the painting will produce a component that looks factory-made. Electrical System Integration. We don’t merely install your system — we integrate it so that it functions seamlessly with the vehicle. It will look and function as if it were an original component. This is the same process and set of resources we use to make our own products. Our in-house design and manufacturing team is yours! A Quick Success Story We had a company come to us that needed to demo 10 autonomous vehicles. They were taking the cars to some of the biggest shows in the country and the world, including the Consumer Electronics Show. A lot was at stake — their corporate reputation, their professionalism, and their capability to prove themselves as a world-class operation. In the past, this customer had used other sources that specialized in one or two aspects of concept development. They had to take each vehicle to several providers to get different parts of the work done. This time, they needed a one-stop shop that could tackle the whole

Booming UTV Market Can Boost the Bottom Line for Accessory Shops

September 8, 2020 Industry News

Booming UTV Market Can Boost the Bottom Line for Accessory Shops SEPTEMBER 8, 2020 // JEFF VARICK The UTV market is an exploding segment that most vehicle accessory shops haven’t noticed, yet — but that’s sure to change before long. Insiders expect the UTV industry to see a boom from $11 billion in 2018 to about $14 billion by 2025. A record 458,000 UTVs were sold in the United States in 2018, up 5.9% from 2017 and a whopping 95.3% gain from 2006. On top of it all, UTV owners are actively looking for aftermarket accessories. That opens terrific opportunities for auto accessory shops that get in the door first. What’s behind the sudden upsurge in UTV popularity? Several things: The powersport vehicles are easy for novices to control, but exciting enough for experienced consumers. They handle rugged terrain as well as roads. Many states are legalizing UTVs for road use — there’s no need for a secondary vehicle or trailer. They’re more affordable than some other options. Side-by-side seating means you don’t have to buy multiple vehicles for the whole family to enjoy them. They’re versatile enough for work and play. They’re tons of fun. UTVs, or side-by-sides, have found a broader audience than many other powersport vehicles. They used to be stuck with the “with age comes the cage” label, but now families are getting into them. Trendwatchers expect the UTV market to keep exploding for years to come. One of the reasons is their versatility. Side-by-sides are being used in a wide variety of activities — everything from off-roading to dune jumping, trailing, hunting, rock crawling, mud bogging, and touring on the road. Aftermarket Opportunities Since these vehicles are being used in such versatile environments, manufacturers don’t want to load them up with features and accessories. For the most part, they come pretty bare bones from the factory. But consumers are eager to accessorize. Market research shows that about 82% of UTV owners have purchased or plan to purchase upgrades to their UTVs, and they’re making accessory decisions early. Most owners purchase upgrades within three months, and UTV upgrade spending is up over 50 percent since 2018. What do consumers want? Enhanced functionality tops the list, since side-by-sides are often used year-round, for all kinds of activities in diverse environments. UTV owners also care about safety, durability, and practicality. So the most popular accessories include hitch balls, tow hitch receivers, and rearview mirrors. SummitView™ Rock Cameras Rearview mirrors are a big deal for UTV owners. If you’re buckled in with a five-point harness and a fully-formed seat, you can’t turn your head. It’s very difficult to see to the side or behind the vehicle. And because many side-by-sides don’t even come with mirrors, that means you have a 180-degree blindspot when you’re hitting the trails or tearing it up on the dunes. You could slam into your buddy’s vehicle and never see them coming. Brandmotion’s SummitView™ UTV Rear Vision System (SUTV-2010 and SUTV-2020) changes that. Our SUTV lineup gives you either one or two cameras and a bright 7-inch display so you can always see behind you. The must-have offroading backup system easily mounts to the rear of any offroad vehicle. It’s especially helpful for backing up on tight trails and is equipped with infrared technology to deliver superior nighttime vision. The dual-camera option (SUTV-1020V2) lets you mount a camera on the front bumper. It’s an ideal solution for heavy-duty rock crawlers and boggers that need to see multiple camera angles and approach angles. Position the front camera downwards to see the approach angle as you’re going down a steep hill. The display features a DVR system that lets you record your trips and capture footage of jumping Razors at the dunes. Don’t Miss Out on the UTV Opportunities Most auto accessory shops still haven’t caught onto the UTV market yet, but this is a huge new segment worth going after. Not only are parts priced more, but owners are willing to spend more — and they’re eager to upgrade. What are you doing to grab the UTV market? Order the SummitView Rock Camera at Crutchfield  Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

What Should You Expect from a Connected Vehicle Integrator?

September 1, 2020 Industry News

What Should You Expect from a Connected Vehicle Integrator? SEPTEMBER 1, 2020 // JEFF VARICK It isn’t easy to hire a service provider for a connected vehicle deployment. The field is still new enough that SmartCities have to feel their way through the dark. You don’t know what you don’t know, and the last thing you want is to have something come back to bite you in the tailpipe — like hiring the wrong contractor. A connected vehicle deployment project involves seven sections that are complex, highly technical, and tightly integrated with each other. What happens in early stages has a major impact on later stages — so it’s critical to make the right decisions out of the gate. The right project manager can be the difference between a successful connected vehicle deployment and a disastrous one. Brandmotion Solutions has had our hands in enough connected vehicle projects to become the nation’s leader in vehicle-side integration. We’re able to handle every aspect of a vehicle integration, from start to finish. Here’s how we do it.  1) Establishing Requirements The documents you have to write are long and intricate. It takes someone with a real gift for writing and project management to be able to complete one of these documents. Most of our clients have a lot of anxiety about the vehicle requirements plan, because they know they need to get a lot of vehicles equipped, but they don’t know what the vehicles’ limitations are. Brandmotion Solutions engineers have the experience with these documents that most installation companies don’t have. You won’t have to explain to us what a concept of operations is, and you won’t have to do it yourself. We know the information to plug into your process. Three ways you’ll see a difference with Brandmotion: OBU spec development The OBU supplier needs to know what apps will be loaded onto the OBU. We can help set the standards and the specifications, so that the proper equipment is purchased to do the job you want done. HMI type selection At one time, OBUs only used tones for notifications. Drivers didn’t know what they meant — if they were about to get T-boned or rear-ended, or something else. Brandmotion Solutions saw a tremendous opportunity to create a visual display for the driver, so they would know exactly what the warning was about. We developed visual notifications for rearview mirrors and heads-up displays that are projected onto the windshield. Both HMIs have opened up a whole new kind of solution for connected vehicle deployments. Vehicle pool analysis We can analyze the pool of vehicles in your state’s fleet — all of the emergency vehicles, snowplows, buses and more. We’ll analyze what it will take to integrate with those vehicles, then design an engineering solution that’s specific for each type of vehicle. 2) System Design and Engineering Once we’ve established the project requirements, we begin designing the solutions. Your CV deployment project can go very wrong if you expect to buy an OBU and simply wire it into each of your vehicles. You need to be very systematic and thoughtful. Every vehicle has its own system, which requires unique design solutions. Brandmotion Solutions can design an integration solution for every car, no matter what make, model, year, or trim level. We’ll design for every element of the system in the installation — CAN, antennas, wiring harness, applications, HMI, and more. Let’s take a look at two of our specialties. CAN data requirements and decoding/aggregating Of the 500 messages that can be decoded in a vehicle, only a dozen or so are actually needed. We’ll determine which CAN messages are relevant, and decode them for every vehicle in the deployment. Often, we have that dataset in our databases already. If not, we’ll get hold of a vehicle that matches and decode it before we begin working on the vehicle in your pool. App use case development There are 60 different applications that can be loaded onto an OBU, but your deployment probably only needs about a dozen of them. We’ll determine the apps that are relevant to meeting your project goals. 3) Hardware Sourcing and Manufacturing There’s a range of OBU suppliers to choose from, but each one is different from the others. Depending on your connected vehicle project, some OBUs will be more ideal than others. We use the Kepner-Tregoe Matrix to run an analysis that determines which hardware is best for your particular project. The process creates a systematic, disciplined sourcing method for all the hardware. 4) Validating the Vehicle System After designing a solution, it’s important to put it in a vehicle and perform interoperability testing to make sure it interacts properly with the roadside units (RSUs). As you can imagine, this is especially important when you have hundreds of vehicles in the project. You don’t want to install 1,000 units, only to discover that they don’t play well with RSUs! 5) Recruitment and Scheduling Your project depends on getting the drivers you need for the study. We can help recruit and train the consumers who will be part of the pilot. We’ll greet them and show a brief training video when they get the OBU installed in their vehicle. The goal is to make sure they’re very comfortable with the new equipment and understand how to interact with it. 6) Installation Brandmotion Solutions does installation from an assembly line mentality, and we use installation time reduction studies. This allows us to reduce wasted time and redundancies as we progress through the installations. In one project, when we started installations, they took three hours. After doing a time reduction study, we were able to reduce installation time to 90 minutes. One of the ways we keep on pace is by using a dashboard reporting tool. Every week we can show you how many vehicles we installed, what issues there were, the average install time, and when we expect to complete the project. It’s an accountability tool that helps us run at peak production and

Curb Alert™ Puts the Brakes on Parking Disasters

August 20, 2020 Industry News

Curb Alert™ Puts the Brakes on Parking Disasters AUGUST 25, 2020 // JEFF VARICK Sports car owners love the low ride, the hug of the road, the connection to the pavement. What they don’t love is parking. Parking often means pulling up, getting out, checking curb distance, jumping back in, pulling up a bit more, and getting out again to check. It dampens the driving experience that a luxury or sports car should give. The worst sound a sports car or luxury car owner can hear is the CRUNCH of a front bumper against an unseen curb or parking block. Front end damage on sports and luxury cars can mean hundreds or thousands of dollars in repairs. Brandmotion can deliver problem-free parking that lives up to the driving experience. Problem-free Parking Brandmotion’s Curb Alert™ Parking System can protect drivers from ever crunching or scraping their front bumpers while parking. Curb Alert is an infrared parking sensor that alerts drivers of low-lying obstructions that can cause costly damage to the vehicle. The system senses curbs, parking blocks, and any low-lying object on the ground that you can’t see. The device gives an audible alert when you approach an object within range. Sensitivity can be adjusted from as little as 12 inches to a maximum of 30 inches. Curb Alert simply hooks into power and ground. Depending on the model, it actuates a camera or audible alert when you approach an object. Better Than Factory Sensors Curb Alert is a patented system that no other parking sensor can match. The devices that come closest to it are the factory-installed ultrasonic parking sensors. While factory sensors can detect objects, the comparison ends there. Curb Alert can tell the difference between a wall, a parking block, and someone standing in front of the car. An ultrasonic sensor is triggered by any object that’s two feet away, no matter the size or height. Factory sensors aren’t foolproof, either. If a parking block is low enough, an ultrasonic sensor may not pick it up. Curb Alert can be set to an exact distance and a specific height to match the car’s ground clearance. Easy Installation When we designed Curb Alert, it had to be quick and easy to install. All it takes is connecting to power and ground, and mounting the sensor. The simple, no-drill application includes bracket designs for a customized fit. When it’s time to purchase a new vehicle, Curb Alert can be easily removed and transferred, leaving no marks on the original car. Curb Alert truly integrates to an OEM level — just set it and forget it! Seamless Integration Brandmotion products are known for seamless integration with the vehicle, and Curb Alert is no exception. The only part of the product you can see is the discreetly placed front sensor, which can be mounted either on top or under the lower part of the valence of the front bumper. The calibration box and speaker are tucked under the dash, out of sight and out of the way. Seven Products to Fit Your Needs Brandmotion currently offers seven Curb Alert products in the series: 3 universal devices that are compatible with any vehicle 2 Corvette-specific devices 2 Mustang-specific devices More products are currently in development. 5000-CA5 The Curb Alert PRO is designed for professional installers. The high-end, simplified wiring goes off keyed power, rather than constant power. There’s absolutely no power going to it when the vehicle is off, which means customers won’t run into any electrical issues or unwanted power draw. It also means you don’t have to worry about comebacks. 5000-CA6 The Curb Alert Parkview PRO is a modified CA5 system with a front camera — and is the first and only auto-trigger front camera parking aid system. When the device senses an object, it turns on a front camera and provides a quick three-beep audible alert. 5000-CA13 This DIY-grade system is simple enough to be installed by a customer. Based on the CA5, the system connects to battery power rather than key-on power. The smart control module detects when the vehicle is shut off to prevent drain on the battery. This device has the same quality as the CA5, but it comes with one additional benefit: unlike the CA5/CA6, you can calibrate the parking sensor without the vehicle being on. 5000-CA8/CA9 The CA8 and CA9 are specific to the 2015-2020 Mustang. Each comes with a video interface to the factory 4-inch or 8-inch screen. 5000-CA12/CA14 The CA12 is specific for C5/C6 Corvettes and the CA14 is designed for C7 Corvettes. The audible-only sensor comes with specific instructions on how and where to install the system on the C5/C6/C7 Corvettes — sensor, power wirings, and how to run them. Quit Fretting About Parking Having Curb Alert is like owning an affordable insurance policy on your luxury or sports car’s front end – on most newer vehicles, the parking sensor pays for itself the first time it saves your bumper. Once you have the system, it’s hard to drive the vehicle without it, because it’s so convenient. Order Curb Alert at Crutchfield or Amazon, or find an installer near you. Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

The Tiny Box That Simplifies CAN Decoding for CV Deployments

August 18, 2020 Industry News

The Tiny Box That Simplifies CAN Decoding for CV Deployments AUGUST 18, 2020 // JEFF VARICK Integrating connected vehicle technology into your fleet vehicles isn’t as simple as plugging an onboard unit (OBU) into a power source. The OBU needs to receive certain signals from the vehicle — signals like steering wheel angles, speed, and turn signals. That data tells the OBU what the vehicle is doing so that it can relay the information data to roadside devices. The trick is getting vehicle data from the car to the OBU. Let’s explore the challenges and opportunities that affect your connected vehicle deployment. Reading Vehicle Data In general, the simplest way to get information is to connect directly into the analog wires you’re monitoring, such as the turn signals. But that presents a new problem: connecting the OBU to physical signals would require pulling off multiple panels around the car and routing wires throughout the vehicle to the OBU. Not only is that an invasive installation, it’s also incredibly time consuming. It makes maintenance, repairs, and uninstalls more complex and time-consuming, too. On top of that, you can’t get all the information you need from physical wires. Using CAN to Read Vehicle Data On the other hand, you can grab all the data you need from the CAN bus. This gives you the option of connecting the OBU to one source, in one spot, without pulling off any panels. Integrating with the CAN gives you incredible time savings on installations, but there’s a downside. Because CAN data is proprietary to the vehicle manufacturer, it has to be manually decoded. And because every vehicle make, model, and year uses a different CAN, most CV deployments require several — maybe even hundreds — of separate CAN decodings. It’s a time consuming and expensive endeavor. Once the CAN data is decoded, your OBU has to have a way of communicating the information to the roadside units. That means translating CAN data from multiple types of vehicles into one standardized CAN. There are devices on the market that can do that, but they come loaded with other functions you’ll never need, which boosts the price of those units impractically high. Fortunately, Brandmotion Solutions can help. CAN Decoding Solutions for CV Deployments Brandmotion Solutions provides customized CAN decoding services and a CAN translator that costs just a fraction of the price of other solutions. Our proprietary CAN aggregator is a tiny unit that translates a vehicle’s CAN messages into a standardized output. The output signal is the same across all the vehicles in your deployment, which makes it easy to communicate with roadside devices. In effect, thousands of different vehicles in a single deployment are now speaking the same language. Many vehicles have multiple CAN buses — high speed, medium speed, and low speed — but most OBUs only have one input. Brandmotion Solution’s CAN aggregator has up to three inputs, which are combined into one output to the OBU. The CAN aggregator sits on the vehicle’s CAN bus as a listen-only device. It won’t interfere with the bus’s firewall protocols, and it can’t affect the performance of the vehicle in any way. Many companies can provide CAN decoding, but no other company offers a unit that translates vehicle-specific CAN into a standardized CAN across vehicle types as affordably. The Brandmotion CAN aggregator costs a fraction of the price of other units, because other products come bundled with functions that don’t apply to CV deployment projects. Our unit does one specific job — the only job you need it to do, without all the extras you’ll never need. Trust the Leaders in CV Deployment Brandmotion Solution’s CAN decoding services make OBU vehicle integration simpler, faster, and less expensive. OBU maintenance and repairs are simpler, and post-project installation is a breeze. Brandmotion Solutions is the specialist that automotive technology companies rely on most for OEM-quality installation and integration. No other company offers the breadth or depth of connected vehicle work that we can provide. Whether it’s for one vehicle or a fleet of 10,000, we can meet challenges in real time and deliver a road-ready product. Start working with us today! Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

Is Sanitizing Your Fleet Vehicles Enough to Protect Your Drivers?

August 11, 2020 Industry News

Is Sanitizing Your Fleet Vehicles Enough to Protect Your Drivers? AUGUST 11, 2020 // JEFF VARICK Suddenly we find ourselves living in a world where everyone is concerned about protection and safety. You’re probably thinking on a whole new level about your vehicles, the people who drive them, and how to keep them safe. You’re probably also dealing with questions like these: Are we sanitizing our vehicles properly? What do we truly need to do to protect our drivers’ health? What are the regional COVID-19 regulations where our drivers are traveling? A great place to start is Brandmotion Solutions’ industry-leading vehicle sanitization protocol. These are important questions, but they’re just the start. When it comes to the health of your drivers, the coronavirus is only one aspect of a holistic safety perspective. It’s important not only to develop an approach to protect your people from COVID-19, but from all other dangers on the road as well. Safety is more encompassing than merely sanitizing your seats and steering wheels. It includes protecting your employees from collisions and distracted driving. In today’s world, safety means doing everything you can to keep your drivers and your equipment safe, and that includes avoiding collisions. Welcome to the Age of Safety We’re in a new world, and you’ve got to up your safety game. Everyone’s talking about it, and undoubtedly your stakeholders, shareholders, and executives have a heightened interest in keeping your employees safe and protected. If you haven’t done it yet, now is the best time to develop an overarching safety program for your fleet. One important aspect of any safety program is the safety technology you use. At a minimum, consider including backup cameras, dash cams, and blindspot protections. Even your older fleet vehicles should include these technologies. Advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) aren’t just nice-to-have equipment anymore. Study after study has proven the collision reduction effectiveness of emerging ADAS technology. For example: Forward collision warning reduced front-to-rear crashes by 27 percent Blind spot detection yielded a 14 percent drop in lane-change crashes Rear cross-traffic alerts reduced backing crashes by 22 percent Lane departure warning resulted in 11 percent fewer single-vehicle, sideswipe and head-on crashes Rearview cameras dropped backing crashes by 17 percent Parking sensors reduced rear crashes by 18%, but in conjunction with a rearview camera, they reduced crashes by an impressive 38%. Blind spot warning and rear cross traffic alert have the highest satisfaction and perceived benefit among drivers. Consumer Reports recommends them for every vehicle. It’s hard to argue with the numbers. But not every fleet manager is investing in ADAS equipment for their drivers. Is Safety Too Costly? Many fleet managers take a pass on ramping up the safety of their fleet vehicles. They think that getting ADAS equipment means purchasing new vehicles or buying clunky aftermarket components. The truth is, you can get OEM-quality ADAS technologies that are seamlessly integrated into the fleet vehicles you’re already operating. Brandmotion supplies retrofit technology that rivals factory equipment. Our technologies are just as accurate as factory-installed ADAS equipment, but they’re more affordable: you don’t have to buy a vehicle with a high trim level. They’re also easier to keep calibrated. Lower crash rates are a clear benefit of these technologies, but collisions can still occur. In that case, Brandmotion gives you a further advantage: repairing vehicles with our safety equipment is less expensive than with factory-installed components. If your vehicle is involved in a collision, not only do you need to repair the body, but you have to recalibrate the advanced driver assistance system that has sensors in the windshield. That can be very expensive. Our products are easy to self-calibrate, which means you don’t have to go to pay a dealership to do it for you. How to Get Started Equipping your fleet with the right safety technologies depends on making informed decisions. Brandmotion can walk you through your choices and help you custom-tailor a program that fits your needs. We’re vehicle experts with decades of deep experience in the auto industry. No matter what you’re driving in your fleet, we know exactly what can (and can’t) be added to your vehicles to get the greatest results. As consultants, we can educate you with government studies that recommend various technologies for particular scenarios. We can also help with ROI calculations and cost/benefit analysis. When you’re ready, our Brandmotion Solutions group can install the equipment and train your drivers how to use it. Brandmotion commonly trains and certifies installers during our retrofit deployments, so your fleet develops your workforce at the same time you develop your infrastructure. This makes a fleet truly smart! Don’t Wait to Play It Safe As safety awareness skyrockets, it’s the responsibility of every fleet manager to make sure your vehicles are properly sanitized from the coronavirus. But safety only begins there — and more than ever, organizations need to take the next step to protect their drivers on the road. Let’s start the conversation about what the right safety program looks like for your fleet. Latest Post Brandmotion and DENSO Announce Partnership for One Stop Vehicle Integration of Advanced Connectivity Technology Get Better Results in Less Time on Your Connected Vehicle Deployment Brandmotion Expands Its Digital FullVUE® Mirror Lineup to Add Ford Bronco What To Know Before Installing A Jeep Backup Camera

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