Research Articles

Why Multi-Network?

Fleet-Vehicle Cameras: Helping to Save Money and Lives

Installing cameras in business vehicles can help companies develop better practices by recording incidents as and when they happen. This helps both to improve drivers’ behaviour and to protect employees from harm, whilst also serving the wider public and other road users. Recognising a driver’s responsibility for their actions is important, and is reinforced by in vehicle recording. This can help companies and employees to focus on instilling good driving behaviour and addressing issues, for their mutual protection and ongoing coaching and training.

Such forms of technological assistance and supervision can naturally increase levels of suspicion amongst drivers, with the knowledge that they could potentially be used evidentially if misconduct is suspected.

Cameras and information assistance systems, however, can also be highly beneficial to the vehicle drivers themselves. The extra visibility and targeted warnings they provide of problems emerging outside their line of sight can help to decrease the risk of accidents. This includes for example, the presence of hazards or of other vulnerable road users, such as cyclists or children.

Installing fully integrated or retro-fitted technologies within vehicles, therefore, can help drivers and businesses operate more safely and effectively. They also enable compliance with increasingly stringent regulations that govern commercial road users, one example being Transport for London’s Direct Vision Standard (DVS).

Whilst safety alone should perhaps be sufficient reason for fitting multi-camera systems to commercial vehicles, it is also important to recognise that investing in a fleet camera solution can also produce ongoing savings and returns.

The Rocky Road to EV Adoption

The planet needs us to change our ways, and a key element is the switch from Internal Combustion Engines (“ICE”s) to Electric Vehicles (“EV”s). 

With recent legislation and product launches, we can be in no doubt that governments and the automotive industry are planning for the mass adoption of EVs. The road to transition is, however strewn with a few large boulders; additional complexities that create anxiety and confusion for potential EV owners. 

It’s true that the EV industry is in its early decades, and whilst I hesitate to use the loaded term “the Wild West”, it’s certainly in flux, with the future shape still to emerge from the fog and every point on the value chain proliferating at dizzying speeds. 

For instance; the number of charge-point operators keeps growing, with over 50 companies in the UK alone (according to ZapMap). Business models and pricing differ widely, from memberships with monthly fees to exclusive roaming partnerships. Payment systems range from charge-cards and RFID tags to open access and contactless. Industry standards, even for critical items like wattage's, charging cables and plugs show only the early signs of settling down. 

The wide disparity between the familiar simplicity of ownership and operation of a conventional vehicle versus an EV, is a significant barrier to mass adoption that must be overcome. This I believe, is a place where the IoT communications industry can play a key part in eliminating complexity by addressing the root cause of much of the uncertainty – by providing ‘real time’ information.

The Embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC)

Traditional and portable ‘plastic-mounted’ single and multi-network SIM cards remain well-proven and offer few risks if supplied by a trusted, fully managed service provider. It is recognised, however, that they do add material and structural cost to an Internet of Things (IoT) deployment. One instance being that ‘physical’ SIMs must be exchanged in devices if a new network provider is desired. In widely distributed IoT devices, this is often a time-consuming, costly, and often therefore impractical process.

The embedded SIM (‘eUICC’) is, therefore, widely seen as the future method for providing more flexible means of connectivity, by enabling the remote changing of the mobile network provider for devices. Promising greater inter-operability and selection of a superior array of network services. Enabling manufacturers and service providers to reduce their device costs or switch network provider depending upon shifting needs or future temporal considerations.