An application for supporting drivers

All over the world, service requests relating to accidents or vehicle breakdowns or remote maintenance and concierge services are handled at the call centre level. However, the current system has been failing to meet client requirements for years. The cause of this is twofold; the number of new functionalities that have been implemented in vehicles in recent years and the lack of intuitive, user-friendly interfaces (UIs). Both factors have given rise to longer handling times for single events and that has led to a drop in application users’ level of satisfaction.

We knew that designing and coding a platform of this kind would take time. In the case of this particular client, it took three and half years from design to deployment. However, a critical aspect that we kept at the forefront of our minds was that the system would be saving drivers’ and passengers’ lives and protecting their health. To be certain of avoiding any errors whatsoever, we therefore gave maximum attention to the automation of the tests we ran, since they were crucial to maintaining top-level quality and reliability in such a complex system.

With those pain points in mind, the client decided that their application system required a radical overhaul and that a new user interface should be designed, meeting the highest standards of user experience (UX) and significantly shortening the time needed to handle a single service request. Moreover, with a view to streamlining the remote processing of service requests, the client ordered the construction of a system that would aggregate the data sent by vehicles and required by the call centre.

• The successful design and deployment of an application adhering to the UX and UI guidelines and featuring an intuitive UI that has reduced request handling times
• The implementation of a standardised handling process on a global scale
• The leveraging of cloud solutions to ensure that the application is scalable, optimising the processes for serving a continually growing fleet of connected vehicles
• The use of a team of 20 programmers to integrate more than 20 systems
• The development of an advanced architecture for the solution
• The achievement of a fully automated testing process

Given the complexity of the problems with the application and the requirement to integrate data from more than twenty systems, the application was redesigned and rewritten from scratch. 

Working closely with the client, we began with designing mock-ups and prototypes of an application that would meet the UX guidelines and with scenarios that would function as guides for call centre assistants, helping them quickly and effectively solve the problems reported by vehicles or their drivers. 

On the basis of UX research into the work of the call centre, we prepared mock-ups that were used for testing the initial assumptions and scenarios. This enabled us to identify and change the most challenging points. Discussing errors equipped us to design a user-flow of maximum intuitiveness and create prototypes ready to be implemented by our programmers. The work of our UX designers meant that we avoided having to introduce changes to the finished solution.

We created a web application based on AWS cloud solutions. The platform is stabler as a result and facilitates scalability for large volumes of data from vehicle diagnostic information reports.

Thanks to the application, agents receive cohesive final information conveyed in real time. It consists of simple elements like the client’s or customer’s details and of more complex aspects including telematics data and the error codes appearing on the vehicle’s display. This makes it possible to diagnose and repair the vehicle remotely and to send a recovery or service vehicle to the site of a breakdown or accident. 

The agents managing requests concerning vehicle breakdowns not only have access to the information about the fault. The system also makes it possible to indicate the probable causes and potential solutions. This function means that the diagnostics are carried out while the request is being handled. In the case of an accident, the request is sent automatically, without  any interaction at all with the people in the vehicle. An agent receives all the information, from the number of people in the vehicle to the impact vectors. On that, the agent can determine whether the people in the vehicle are conscious, if it is possible to establish contact with them and whether any of them are injured and then relay that information to the emergency services.

The solutions we deployed also include: 

• utilising a complex architecture grounded in microservices and various communication protocols, which enables the application to aggregate data from both old and new generation systems. The solution is designed to obtain information in a specific and logical order;
• introducing WebSocket-based communication, which allows incoming data from systems to be rapidly displayed on the user interface without needing to refresh the view;
• adding new functionalities, including eCall event support for motorbikes, which is gradually being implemented on markets worldwide;
• providing clients and customers with preventative information about potential breakdowns. The system uses telemetric data and vehicle information to notify call centre agents about potential faults or servicing needs. That information is then passed on to the client or customer, who can arrange vehicle servicing while speaking to the agent. Early fault detection helps reduce service costs by addressing problems before they become serious;
• informing city services about potential fire risks in an electric vehicle. The system detects exceedances of specific vehicle parameters using telemetry data and automatically notifies the call centre to request the appropriate firefighting units. The aim of the operation is to prevent fires or minimise possible fire damage.