roadside assistance services with car data

How Car Data Improves Roadside Assistance

According to Highways England, the country’s government-owned company in charge of operating  their main roads, more than 48,500 highway breakdowns occurred during the summer of 2018. In 2019, the company is expecting approximately 5,000 breakdowns a week for the same time period. The risk these numbers impose can be dramatically reduced by using vehicle data to quickly find a way to repair the car as well as for improving driver engagement with roadside assistance services.

Connected cars are generating large amounts of data. This data, for example, engine status, speed, error codes, fuel status, tire pressure and failed part indication, can be used to predict required maintenance and provide real-time insights about the status of the car and its health.

So, if a car breaks down on the highway, car data puts the driver in a better position to understand the reason and assist in fixing it. For example, monitoring tire pressure data and analyzing sensors could predict and prevent flat tires from happening in the middle of nowhere. If a driver does get a flat, data could assure it was changed properly. Advanced car data services could then direct the driver via location data to the nearest garage, where the tire would be fixed properly.

Utilizing car data also minimizes the time spent on the side of the road when trying to understand and fix the problem. This reduces safety hazards, both to the driver and to the rest of the cars driving in the area.

Using Data to Analyze what Services are Needed

Sometimes, however, cars need more professional servicing. Automotive data is even more crucial in these cases. By remotely analyzing the data attributes, roadside assistance services can determine what is needed, be it battery charging, gas filling, changing a flat tire or towing the vehicle, and then communicate it to a professional garage for attention.

Location data can also easily indicate exactly where the car broke down, ensuring the roadside service providers get to the wreck location faster. In some cases a trip is saved; data can help determine if roadside assistance is even needed. With enough data, representatives could guide the driver or passengers over the phone about how to fix the car.

Other Advanced Roadside Assistance Services

Roadside assistance services can also use car data to create partnerships with insurance companies. From the driver perspective, car data is used to fix the problem preventing them from driving. From the insurer perspective, the data can be used to determine how to execute the driver’s insurance policies and for dealing with insurance claims.

Another potential partnership utilizes predicting required maintenance, and enables dispatching the necessary parts to the repair-shop. This improves the efficiency of the aftermarket parts value chain inventory. For the car owner this is immediate time and cost savings.

Finally, these towing and car maintenance services could cooperate with governmental agencies to provide data that can be used for stats and analysis. As a result, municipalities and agencies could manage traffic better, fix and rebuild roads, and create smarter cities.

No matter the case, roadside assistance services should always guide drivers to with safety first in mind. In case of a breakdown, it is important to move the car to the side of the road, alert other motorists by making the vehicle visible, use emergency flashers, and ensure all persons are safely positioned before attempting to fix the car.

Otonomo provides car data from more than 15 OEMs from all over the world. Contact us to get the best data for providing roadside assistance services, insurance services, traffic management, and more.

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