Our company employs about 150 people in five countries — Hungary, the UAE, Russia, Hong Kong, and the USA. For more than 10 months, the company offices have been empty and the employees have moved to remote locations. A few months ago, we gave up the office in the US altogether. Today, we want to talk about how this process was organized in Hungary and the UAE, countries where we have quite a few teams.

Emma, HR & Office Manager of the Budapest office:

In Hungary, the restrictions were not the same as in Russia. The offices were not officially closed, but it was recommended to not visit them, and this recommendation is still in effect. Most companies now use 5–10% of their offices.

At the same time, cafés and bars were open. In my opinion, this was quite a risky decision, because now the number of cases is rising sharply. Nevertheless, most Hungarians are responsible and choose places for recreation where they can social distance.

Our office staff were divided into two camps, as they probably were everywhere else. Team members who were worried about the coronavirus were happy to be able to stay home and be completely safe. Many of those who were hired at this time noted that they were happy to work from home because they had wanted a home office previously, so this was an advantage for them. Other team members found it difficult to work from home because they had children who made it difficult to pay attention in a confined space. Since Budapest never banned office visits, they come to the office and work in the usual format.

After almost 10 months, the entire team has gotten used to the pandemic, and we can work effectively both at home and in the office.

Hadi, Operations Manager of the Dubai office:

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in Dubai, there was a complete lockdown for about one week. We couldn’t even go to the office if we had to — the government measures were very strict. Thanks to two news sites (www.thenationalnews.com and https://u.ae/en/information-and-services), we could keep track of what we could and could not do. Our government was very serious about enforcing all the rules.

In transitioning to remote working, we followed four priorities:

• Provide all employees with the necessary equipment to continue working off-site.
• Hold short meetings as needed with a small number of people in a coffee shop to prioritize tasks for the week.
• Hold regular phone calls and online meetings to share up-to-date job information.
• Work the same business hours as would be worked in the office.

With the removal of some restrictions, our technical and operations teams returned to the office to handle their backlog of tasks. It is important for these teams to be able to work from the office at least a couple of times a week. I prefer to work from the office two days a week and work from home the other days. During the quarantine, I felt that our team’s productivity decreased because of the poor mood due to the lack of in-person communication with colleagues. It’s good that we are allowed to visit offices in Dubai now and it’s not necessary for everyone to work remotely.

Daria, Chief Human Resources Officer

With all the offices working remotely, it was important for us to monitor employee morale. Therefore, we did pulse surveys to stay in touch with colleagues and learn what activities would be interesting to people in a remote format to lift the mood and offer support from the company. The survey results were unpredictable. Here’s what employees voted for:

• ”Wake Up with HR” was a daily morning exercise that anyone from any of the offices could join. However, this format of communication did not last long.
• ”Coffee Break” was an online room that everyone could join from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. to socialize or spend lunchtime with colleagues from all offices, discuss the news, and just chat informally. “Coffee Break” lasted a little longer than the morning exercise, about three months. Many employees were not ready to spend their working time on informal meetings. They preferred to do chores at home during breaks.
• ”Online Games” — Some people voted for online games because they wanted to play against each other as they sometimes did in the office. We created a chat room on Telegram where they could arrange team games at their convenience. This activity is still popular today.

Before the pandemic, the company already had Management Talks. At the end of each quarter, a team of top managers prepared a presentation for the employees of all offices with a story about the company’s results and forecasts/plans for the next quarter. This allowed all employees to keep their hand on the pulse, to avoid a “suspended” state, and to ask questions directly (or anonymously) to the top managers of the company. Those who couldn’t attend the meeting in person were always connected to Management Talks via Zoom. With the onset of the pandemic, we simply moved Management Talks to a completely remote format and continued to keep employees informed in this mode.

Despite the fact that the offices in Hungary and the UAE did not have long, strict attendance restrictions, most employees noted the lack of in-person communication with their colleagues. Bright Box has always distinguished itself precisely by the fact that office teams regularly communicate with each other in offline formats. Nevertheless, employees already believe that this year we will be able to get together. Some colleagues have become close and have found friends through activities that would not have been organized if it were not for telecommuting.

Remote work: Cases of Bright Box’s Firmware, Technical Support, Product Development, and Project…

Remote work in Budapest and Dubai: Bright Box case was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Vanilla

According to the sales model we had at that time, each new client got a separate instance, which means that each client’s data is completely isolated from other clients and that each client’s solution can be customized individually. Initially, we implied that we’d have a bunch of small clients using one single instance without customizations, and another bunch of bigger clients, using separate, individually customized instances. But the reality turned out to be different. Thus, we came to the idea of a single instance for most of our clients (served by the “core“ team) plus separate instances for those clients, who want more dramatical customizations (served by the united Project Management team).

With the chosen sales model, a fully configured separate instance was needed, which would be used for demo & sales purposes. Long story short, such an instance has been created in 2017 with the name Vanilla.

If I had to use a metaphor to describe Vanilla, I’d use this one: imagine a Lego set. Everyone who gets it can build anything he wants, being limited by the pieces given in the set. In this case, Vanilla would be the demo model built from this set, the one you could see & touch in stores. This is how we came with the idea of Vanilla, a reference instance that combined features of DM & Remoto.

The idea of the name Vanilla belongs to Vitaly Baum, Chief Product Officer at Bright Box, and leads its reference to the methodology of naming “pure“ versions of Android and Linux. What we usually called Vanilla within the company was the demo of the mobile application, which was also used for testing purposes.

I want to make it clear that Vanilla is not specifically a product, but a demo of our DM & Remoto products’ features. And the first version of Vanilla was called “Vanilla half“, or “Vanilla/2”, as initially not all features of DM & Remoto have been included in it.

Remoto Cloud Services

Remoto Cloud Services (RCS) is an evolutionary step that gathered all the best from DM & Remoto. In contrast with Vanilla, RCS has a new sales model: now we have a single instance for all clients and a subscription revenue model, which means that our clients pay us a recurring fee for access to our service. Transition to the new model has been forced by the new broker we started using for communicating with devices: Microsoft Azure IoT Hub. This model has shown itself to be more effective & cost-saving. So in 2019 the codename Vanilla has been replaced with RCS as well as the sales model has been changed. The guts (i.e. the technology) has stayed the same.

Remoto includes the following components/services:

• Dealer Web Portal
• Mobile application
• Hardware + Firmware: our beloved devices which are installed in the cars: TCU & OBD.
• Cloud magic.

This cloud-based platform is our main product at the moment and it is still referred to as the Connected Car Platform. Clients with Remoto keep being migrated to RCS, one by one. Because RCS keeps evolving according to the needs of our clients.

Thank you for reading to the end of a small excursion into the history of our products. As a dessert here are amazing explanations from our colleagues, used by them to explain what is RCS to their children:

• Your car can tell you how it feels and you can ask it to make certain things.
• If you left your cars (toys) at home, you could see what’s going on with them on your mobile phone.
• It is a solution that you install in your car and the driver can see that everything works well within the car, how much fuel is left, where we have left the car for example. We can also book appointments with the dealership if we need to, or read the latest news from the company that made our car. The solution could also help if we have a problem with the car on the road, sending a signal for the rescue team to come and help us.

But seriously, though, RCS have the following advantages:

• Full control on Bright Box side: from engineering and hardware production to publishing mobile applications.
• Connectivity for the customers
• Raising rate of the customer retention for the dealerships.

The Remoto Connected Car Solution is a unique combination of hardware, web portal, mobile application, and a car, and let’s see how far we will go in developing it.

Let’s get back to our roots: How Bright Box solution has been developing since 2012? Part 1

Let’s get back to our roots: How Bright Box solution has been developing since 2012? Part 2 was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The word “remote” should be the Word of the Year for 2020, as it has affected almost every person and every company. Bright Box is no exception. In fact, we have worked remotely for quite a long time. Since 2017, company employees have had the opportunity to work from home two days a week. But since March 2020 in five Bright Box offices (Moscow, Dubai, Budapest, New York, and Hong Kong)no one has worked in the offices. And, no one will be until March 2021. We decided to collect detailed information on the internal processes of the switch to remote work in Firmware, Technical Support, Product Development, and Project Management teams in countries where our company operates. This information is interesting because our company’s team work is connected with telematics and cars, which do not fit into the home office. We have divided the experience of each team into sections.

Team leader of Firmware:

Problems

Even before the pandemic, Bright Box employees were able to work from home two days a week, usually on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, when the home became a full-time office due to the pandemic, psychological difficulties began. Many people found it difficult to recreate the working experience at home, and family relationships and habits interfered with work.

First of all, as a team, we faced the problem that the daily routine was down, which in its extreme form became insomnia. To address this problem, we introduced a “day schedule” where we strictly defined work start, end, and break times. The team also decided that it was necessary to separate work and non-work spaces. Some workers turned a room into an office; others used a balcony. HR and office managers provided employees with everything they needed to be comfortable: ottomans, desk lamps, office chairs. Everything for work was put in a specific place; entering this space meant that employees could focus on work tasks, and exiting this space meant employees could switch to home affairs or relaxation.

In terms of positive changes, we noticed that the absence of office noise increased the speed of task completion. And even though additional meetings and organization of new workflows partially restored the office environment, the productivity of employees increased at home compared with the office.

But, the synergy between team members suffered most when moving to remote work. The synergy is crucial for efficient execution of complex tasks and finding solutions to fix them.

Technical equipment

The developers took telematics devices home with them in order to provide remote support and develop new functionalities. An approximate set of devices for each developer was as follows: nine telematics devices of the last three versions, four controllers, a tourniquet to connect the emulator, transmitters with harnesses, a laboratory power supply, three tachographs, and a USB-port extender.

Communications

Our team conducts research on cars, so it is important for us to have cars physically present near the office or to be able to work on clients’ premises. Writing and debugging code and functional tests are also performed on real cars.

But, due to the pandemic, we have mostly shifted our focus to remote research. In local offices or on client premises, one employee conducts work. With the remote assistance of our engineer, he performs research work, collects and transmits information for analysis, and performs minimal tests. He relays this information to the team, and they provide a solution. This approach is subject to limitations, but in the current situation, it allows us to continue some of our planned work without traveling. Employees also carry out work on personal vehicles or vehicles of colleagues.

Team leader of Technical Support:

Problems

The challenge of remote teamwork was mostly employees with children. Depending on their age, children may not understand that a parent needs to work all day and cannot play with them.

In addition, there is a severe lack of team physical presence. But we have tried to solve this problem. For example, to support team spirit and staff awareness, HR provides a number of weekly activities.

Technical equipment

Nothing new for our work had to be invented. We use the same tools that we used before the self-isolation period: VoIP telephony, incident tracking systems, internal services for working with equipment, etc.

Communications

Our clients are divided into two types: aftersales customers and carsharing operators. For the latter, we provide only informational support. For aftersales customers, we help them remotely, as always.

Team leader of Product Development:

Problems

For us, the transition to remote work was not very noticeable because our team has previously worked in a similar format. We always took the opportunity to work from home on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we have established a system of remote communication that fully replaces personal contact in the office. With the arrival of fully remote work, our team resolved any problems that occurred — all employees are available during working hours by email and phone, and do not need to be sought in corners of the office.

At the beginning of the transition, everyone was worried about the uncertainty of the situation. Many were ready to work in another city/country but were hesitant because it could be necessary to return to the office soon. Now, this uncertainty has been cleared up. We will not return to the offices until the end of March 2021, or we might completely switch to a remote format.

Technical equipment

Since the company was founded, the tools and technical solutions we use in our work have been designed for maximum employee flexibility. Everyone has a laptop (some even have two), so there are no problems with access, and work can go on without interruption. If someone’s work equipment breaks down while working remotely, our IT department can urgently send a replacement laptop, and everyone has access to cloud-based office and technical sites.

Communications

Our team works as self-sufficiently as possible, so interactions with other teams are minimal and not critical for the performance of our tasks. In fact, remote work has opened up new opportunities for us. For example, you can go to the mountains or to the sea for a long period of time while continuing to work remotely and increase social distancing.

Head of Project Management Office:

Problems

The transition to remote work was quite easy and smooth. To be honest, at first, we thought mostly about continuing business processes and maintaining project activities. As soon as we made sure that all processes continued to be performed at the proper level, we started to optimize communications, solve “everyday” problems, and monitor the status of remote employees. At this stage, it was important to get feedback from employees and react quickly to issues. The company actively helped employees create a comfortable working environment at home. During personal online meetings with employees and meetings regarding annual and interim assessments, discussing issues related to remote work became common practice. The main challenge for employees was not technical ability to perform duties remotely; instead, the major challenge was organizing remote workspaces and integrating work life into home life.

Technical equipment

In the first days of quarantine, employees had to solve the problem of arranging a workplace at home. The company provided necessary equipment and office furniture to help employees create a suitable working environment. For example, one employee had to change their home router for a more powerful one, and another employee had to buy an additional antenna and change their mobile communication provider to get a reliable connection in their country house. All other resources needed for work were already available on the Internet.

Communications

Although working with remote employees is not new for Bright Box, transferring all employees to this mode of work simultaneously caused some difficulties. When managing a remote team, we need to spend much more time on team communications and one-to-one meetings. Not surprisingly, at first, all available call slots and online meetings were completely booked for two to three weeks ahead. With employees requiring micromanagement and more frequent communication, there were additional activities discussing the rules of remote work, availability mode, and response time to colleagues.

Since 2017, Bright Box has been a part of the international insurance group Zurich that focuses on the health and safety of employees of all its member companies. So we don’t rush to open our offices, we don’t send people on business trips, we reimburse employees for coronavirus tests to be able to work in the office if it is extremely necessary. And today we focus more on the list of remote benefits. Here they are:

· An employee can work from any location as long as they have Internet access;

· A new experience at work — our engineers have found a way to test cars remotely.

· No need to waste time on travel;

· Saving money for lunch, you can stick to your eating habits and diet;

· Scheduling work time to your liking;

· Opportunity to spend more time with family;

· Increasing the level of self-organization and responsibility;

· The warmth of waiting to meet your co-workers;

· Saving money on office maintenance (buying office supplies, tea, coffee, etc.) and business trips;

· More opportunities for remote training. Employees are more active in self-education and are happy to take online courses on the educational platform of Zurich Insurance Group.

Once upon a time, it was hard for us to imagine that all companies would switch to a remote working format. We had it accepted twice a week, so we were able to quickly reorganize. But most employees still recognize the need to talk to their colleagues in person at least a few times a week.

So we’re not ready to give up the office for good yet, are you?

Remote work: Cases of Bright Box’s Firmware, Technical Support, Product Development, and Project… was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Dealer Mobility

Dealer Mobility — we also call it DM within the company — is the first product launched by Bright Box in January 2013. Dealer Mobility is a platform for dealerships and OEMs that provides an avenue to сonnect with a car owner through the mobile app. This is a platform with Customer Retention Services aimed at converting their mobile audience into customers and building customer loyalty. DM mobile application allowed clients to easily access the services of dealerships. The first client where the whole story started was KIA.

One of the main problems of car dealerships, which is still relevant, is when it comes to service, customers turn to cheaper service centers. We know that in order to retain a client, they need to call them in time and make a special offer. The Dealer Mobility mobile platform was developed to solve this problem. The most popular features in this product were push notifications about dealerships’ promotions and the ability to send service requests. As you might have guessed the product worked without any hardware (devices).

DM included the following components/services:

• Configurator: web service for building customized mobile applications.
• Control Panel: web service for dealerships for managing mobile app content and processing requests.
• Mobile application: for end customers of dealerships.
• Backend magic.

And Bright Box still has clients who use DM. But still, car owners will not use this app too often. Therefore, we thought that it would be nice if the smartphone could control the functions of the car, then the driver would access the app much more often. We conducted a survey and found out that car owners are interested in remote use of climate control, locking doors, searching for a car, and notifying about the impact or evacuation of the car. So we started to create the first prototype of the product and look for a client who is ready for the experiment and such an experience.

Remoto Connected Car Platform

First of all, Remoto is a brand. This brand started from a major project KIA Remoto. It was launched in 2014 with the full name Remoto: Connected Car Platform. This is a cloud-based solution connecting OEMs, dealerships, and their customers during the whole lifecycle of the car. The key features of Remoto are:

• Remote car control, allows managing the car remotely.
• Telematics, allows collecting and processing telemetry data collected from the car.

Starting the development of Remoto, we had to quickly assemble a special team of engineers — the Remoto Laboratory. According to the developers’ idea, the designed system should at least be able to start the engine safely (via a secure communication channel), open the doors and trunk, control the temperature and turn on the lights.

To provide these features, it was not enough to simply connect to the standard diagnostic connector (OBD-II). You need to know the protocols by which the car modules communicate with each other.

Now, most of the company’s employees are engineers. Bright Box develops the entire stack of hardware technologies, embedded software, and server infrastructure for the mobile app.

Remoto was developed as a large platform by all developers, and later a separate team was created for each customer, which adapted it to the customer’s needs.

Remoto, in its essence, is a technology + hardware & firmware (devices). You may ask, what were we actually selling to our clients? And the answer is the implementation of this technology, devices themselves, as well as customization of client & end-customer services.

Remoto included the following components/services:

• Web Portal: web service for dealerships & OEMs for monitoring & support.
• Mobile application: for end customers of dealerships & OEMs.
• Hardware + Firmware: our beloved devices which are installed in the cars: TCU & OBD.
• Cloud magic.

And here’s a list of what people may mean when they say “Remoto”:

• One of our company’s legal name;
• Brand name;
• Name of the old Bright Box product;
• A device, TCU or OBD.

As a result, Bright Box was able to enter the international market with Remoto. Bright Box still has clients who use old Remoto.

Bright Box has impressive experience in software development and automotive engineering. Stay tuned to know how we united the best features of DM and Remoto in a single product.

Let’s get back to our roots: How Bright Box solution has been developing since 2012? Part 1 was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We have a lot of data about connected vehicles. OEMs, national sales companies and dealerships have a lot of such data, too. We know how to make this data work for you, and we can help you increase revenue by 30% by offering drivers from various categories specific sets of products and services, including appropriate accessories, new car sales, and upcoming service visits. And all customer data collection and analysis is done in full compliance with national data privacy regulations and adhering to highest data security standards.

Connected vehicle data is constantly being accumulated and analyzed from all available sources. For every user we have a certain number of indicators that characterize that user in particular. These data sets enrich and complement each other, allowing you to find a lot more insights and draw more valuable conclusions about driver behavior. In my opinion, the most useful vehicle parameters are mileage and vehicle health data, which our European customers have confirmed, too. The mileage is needed to build a plan for predictive maintenance and to understand approximately when the customer will arrive with what problem. Vehicle health check allows the dealer to remotely see all errors, and based on them to offer the customer a specific service. All this is provided by data and integration with the DMS system. When the customer gets a low battery notification, the same thing appears in the app. And, accordingly, dealers can also see this. Working effectively with vehicle data allows you to increase service arrivals, which means increasing sales of spare parts and services.

Data analytics from connected cars also allows you to research and evaluate drivers, dividing them into segments based on their driving style and vehicle usage patterns in order to offer drivers from different categories specific sets of products and services, including appropriate accessories, new car sales, and upcoming service visits. For example, the following clusterization of clients is possible: night drivers, safe drivers, drivers who drive only in the city, or on the same route. By making such clusters, the dealer can build a specific legend. If it is a night driver, we can see it by the speed and time, sharp braking and acceleration, and we can offer them new pads or oil.

Note that not only dealers, but also automakers can benefit from data analytics. After all, if customers pass on time, then the automaker will have to pay less for warranty repairs and plan warranty stocks more effectively. The manufacturer, with information about remote diagnostics, can analyze what errors occur for customers and what it is related to: the battery, the fluid level, etc. Based on this, it can build its warranty policy and find errors in production.

Let’s add to the difficult current conditions the requirements that have recently appeared for car manufacturers. Since 1 January 2020, new regulations are in effect setting CO2 emission performance standards for new passenger cars and vans. Manufacturers will have to meet new stricter targets set for the fleet-wide average emissions of new cars and vans registered in a given calendar year. By 2025, manufacturers will need to reduce fleet-wide emission by 15% for both cars and vans, compared to 2021 levels. By 2030, they will need to reach a 37.5% reduction for cars and a 31% reduction for vans.

Transport tech can reduce the impact of the auto industry on the environment in several ways:

● Connected car technology helps reduce fuel consumption

● Car-sharing means fewer cars on the road

● Electric cars reduce reliance on fossil fuels

Car market analysts have already begun to calculate how much the car sales market will decline in 2020. But do not forget that if sales of new and maintained vehicles may fall, at the same time, the number of sales of spare parts and services will increase. This data is aimed at supporting the user with the right services at the right time, and helps the dealers not to annoy an already intimidated customer.

It’s time to work effectively with vehicle data was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

One of the reasons this is such a hot topic in the industry is that the EU was planning on creating an industry standard. However, this manoeuvre has been delayed and thwarted by member states. Choosing one method or the other will have a significant effect on the connected car sector, affecting capability and coverage, as well as costs.

The innovator vs the incumbent

Observers have cast the battle between 5G and Wi-Fi as the exciting new kid in town against the tried-and-tested established player. However, both mediums have a great deal of industrial might behind them. Names such as BMW, Daimler, Ford, Huawei, Intel, Qualcomm and Samsung back 5G, while GM, Toyota, Volvo and Volkswagen support Wi-Fi.

Both mediums perform the same function for connected cars, the transfer of data between connected vehicles and connected infrastructure such as traffic lights and control hubs. This real-time communication will initially boost safety, eventually leading to full-scale autonomous driving. For a while, it looked like Wi-Fi would win the decision by default because 5G wasn’t ready yet, but 5G technology is improving rapidly.

Advantages of 5G

The primary advantage of employing 5G as the medium for data transfer in connected cars is its speed. The tech companies behind 5G say it can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second, which is one hundred times faster than the current mobile standard, 4G.

With such quick data transfer in connected cars, you have real-time data availability. This will lead to more features, solutions and services becoming available for connected vehicles. Hewlett Packard Enterprises (HPE) and Continental have created a data-sharing platform to harness the power of the data collected by connected car manufacturers with the aim of improving road safety. This initiative is dependent on 5G technology.

Proponents of 5G say that their favoured technology will be extremely reliable. If the tech works using 4G, as tests claim to show, it will be even better when they use 5G.

When you combine these advantages, it all leads to a safer, better-connected driving experience.

Disadvantages of 5G

The main disadvantage of 5G, and where it compares unfavourably to Wi-Fi, is cost. Because it is a new technology, when 5G data transmission becomes available, it will be much more expensive than the current 4G option, and more expensive than Wi-Fi.

This could have a far-reaching effect on the connected car industry. If consumers decide connected car technology is too expensive and not worth the outlay, it could become a novelty rather than a necessity. For at least the first couple of years after launch, this price premium must be reflected in each business case.

The question is, how important is data transfer speed to the connected car driver? Manufacturers and dealers regard it as essential, but will drivers think the extra speed is worth the extra outlay? It’s certainly possible that the average consumer would be happy with 4G or Wi-Fi speeds to keep the costs down.

Another drawback to 5G is coverage. In most parts of the world, 5G is not available yet. Consumers can utilise 5G in certain cities in the US, Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and South Africa, but outside of those areas, it is not possible yet.

Finally, there could be a problem with adapting existing connected car technology to operate on 5G networks. Currently, older Wi-Fi-connected car systems would not be able to work. This was a problem highlighted by the Finnish delegation to the EU when this was being discussed at the European Commission.

The debate rages on

At the moment, it does not look like this debate will be settled soon. There are too many big names too heavily invested for them to back down now. The EU may decide to allow both mediums, which could hold back the industry which needs a single industry standard that everyone can use.

At Remoto, we see the enormous potential in 5G. It is the number one choice from a technology perspective. However, we are bearing in mind the costs involved.

Follow the Remoto blog to make sure you stay in touch with all the latest news around connected car technology.

Connected Cars: Wi-Fi vs 5G was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If these statements cause alarm, don’t panic. At Bright Box, we’ve developed an end-to-end mobile solution to help dealers make sales, manage maintenance and strengthen their relationship with their customers. The Remoto app is available for motor dealerships to use as their own, ready-made mobile app — fully-tested and already in use by more than 2,000 connected dealerships worldwide.

In less than an hour, dealers can have their own branded mobile app, ready for their customers to download and enjoy.

Making life better for automotive dealerships

The Remoto app is packed with features to help motor dealers improve efficiency and build business.

It is a ready-made, white label solution available for dealers to tap into immediately. Remoto provides the back end. Dealers can add their own branding, branch locations, special promotions and more. Even though the app comes from Remoto, dealers can make it look unique to their business to maintain their brand’s link with the customer.

It can help dealers achieve their primary goal of increasing revenue. Dealers can integrate an online shop into their mobile app, giving them the ability to sell accessories without having to meet the customer. This generates additional income and reduces operational costs. Dealers can also offer targeted promotions to customers, which helps boost revenue and assists in inventory management.

The Remoto app helps dealers solidify their relationship with their customers by enhancing service and learning which special offers or promotions each driver is likely to be most interested in.

Perhaps one of the most important features for dealers is that they can list all their locations on the app with map coordinates, opening hours and a list of team members. This makes it much easier for customers to find dealerships and also to call their local team directly using the app. All of these features create a closer connection between the dealer and the customer, boosting customer satisfaction and retention.

Finally, the Remoto app helps dealers with their maintenance operations. In-car diagnostics help spot small problems before they become big ones. It helps to save time and effort for the dealer’s maintenance team.

Remoto — always improving

We think we’ve built a great app with Remoto. However, we understand only too well that if you stand still, you get left behind. We’re continuously improving our Remoto app to help our customers with

● 3–4 updates per year

● new features added, with existing ones simplified

● plans include simplifying the process of technology integration with other systems and platforms

Remoto app — benefits for drivers

It’s not only motor dealers that can find benefits from the Remoto app. When customers download the app to their smartphones, their experience of car ownership dramatically improves.

With Remoto’s Remote Car Control feature, drivers can unlock their car, start the engine and plot their route, all from their phone. Remoto’s Vehicle Health-Check feature lets drivers request service and maintenance from their dealer. It also monitors driving behavior, bringing peace of mind when drivers lend their car to other people. In the future, this kind of information will help consumers achieve lower insurance premiums.

The Remoto app also increases driver safety, with a feature that analyses impact in the event of a crash, automatically calling the emergency services.

Finally, drivers can also follow dealers’ news and promotions in the Remoto app feed, as well as receive personalized offers from their dealer. They can even integrate their Remoto app with their social media feeds.

Other businesses, such as OEMs, National Sales Companies, car sharing, fleet and leasing companies can also use the Remoto app to their advantage.

Get started with Remoto

It’s never been easier for dealers to get their own mobile app and start reaping the rewards. Remoto is a ready-made platform, giving dealers the infrastructure on which to build their apps. With our toolkit, a dealer can have their branded app ready for use in less than 30-minutes. There is no need for additional development.

Remoto is also a cost-effective solution, especially if you compare it to the cost of each dealer network hiring its own mobile app developer.

The Remoto app allows dealers to connect with their customers and boost revenue. Because Remoto is a platform that is proven to produce results, it enables them to gain an advantage over their competitors.

It takes less than a day to customize the Remoto app back end with a dealer’s branding and other information. Using simple APIs, it is also possible to integrate the Remoto app with other software used by a dealer, such as a CRM or dealer management system (DMS). For bespoke dealer requirements, developers can create their own extensions to the Remoto app.

To find out more about the Remoto app for motor dealers, visit the Remoto site today.

How does Remoto App Bring Competitive Advantages to Motor Dealers & Drivers was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Governments, businesses and consumers across Asia are preparing themselves for the advent of connected cars. Asia is at the forefront of many technological advances today; connected cars will be no different.

Total revenue in Asia for the connected car sector in 2018 was $5.4 billion. That figure is predicted to climb to more than 11 billion by 2023.

Companies such as Baidu are investing in connected car technology in a meaningful way. The Chinese search engine giant has developed a conversational AI platform for vehicles, which will feature in several domestic and internationally-manufactured cars, including models from Ford, Hyundai and Kia.

Governments across the region are drawing up legislation to accommodate connected cars on their roads. These range from amending traffic regulations to increase safety, as has happened in Singapore and Japan, to setting up a Smart Car Council, as has happened in South Korea. Japan has drawn up specific laws for autonomous vehicle testing, such as the requirement to have a human in the car at all times, approval from the police and clear labelling on the vehicle. Thailand has become a growth area for the production of connected car and automation technology.

The opportunity is significant for Asia to become a global leader in connected car technology, but it will not be easy.

Benefits of connected car take-up in Asia

If Asia can become a global centre for the connected car, it brings opportunities for consumers, governments and business alike.

Traffic is a massive problem in many Asian population centres. According to the navigation company TomTom, Mumbai is the most congested city in the world. New Delhi, Bangkok and Jakarta also feature in the top ten. Anything that can provide a solution will be welcome. In the event of a traffic jam, connected technology inside the vehicle can communicate with a hub, which will tell the driver to take a different route to avoid the congestion. Connected cars can also predict when a car will need repair, which will reduce the number of breakdowns, as well as the congestion they bring.

Connected cars also have the potential to increase safety on the roads in Asia. As well as spotting potentially unsafe cars, so they can be fixed before they cause a big problem, connected car technology can also prevent casualties. For example, if there is a crash, connected car technology can measure the force of the impact and automatically call the emergency services if necessary.

Connected cars will bring environmental benefits, which is especially relevant as countries such as China and India sign-up to ambitious carbon reduction targets. Connected car technology is being integrated into electric as well as fuel-driven vehicles.

Finally, there are benefits for business from the growth of connected cars in Asia. There will be a global market for connected car technology. If Asian manufacturers can leverage their position as world leaders in innovation and manufacturing efficiency to capture the connected car sector, they can reap the rewards.

At Bright Box, we have already entered the Asian market and are strengthening our foothold there. Due to the high demand for connected car technology, there is significant potential for growth.

Challenges to connected car adoption

However, there will be challenges that the Asian connected car industry will need to overcome if it is to achieve critical mass with Asian drivers.

One problem is that Asia is the largest and most populous continent. As well as its size, it is a continent of extremes. There are many different cultures and economic models. There is extreme wealth and exceptional poverty, often in close proximity to each other. Thailand, for example, does not have a well-developed road infrastructure. Urban roads do not always match vehicles’ navigation systems.

This lack of cohesion makes it challenging to implement the kinds of changes needed for new technology, like connected cars, to scale. For the connected car to truly take off in Asia, moving between countries needs to be seamless. There needs to be a common, industry standard specification for connected car technology, as well as the connected infrastructure in the cities and towns.

Security for connected cars is an issue especially relevant to Asian countries. Different countries will have different requirements regarding what happens to the reams of data that connected cars produce. One would imagine that China would want to monitor everything, while other countries will be less demanding. Will countries with less regulation become a haven for hackers?

Finally, Asia is in competition with Western giants to be world leaders in connected car technology. Volkswagen is one of the many household names investing in connected car tech, while Silicon Valley behemoths such as Google, Tesla and Uber are staking big bets on autonomous vehicles. Will companies from the West be allowed to operate in Asia? If so, will they put Asian companies out of business? If not, will Asia always be seen as lagging behind the West when it comes to connected car technology?

Exciting times

This is clearly an exciting time for connected car technology. To become one of the companies that provide connected car technology to the vast population and economies of India and China is an enticing prospect. However, significant challenges need to be overcome for it all to work. Can national governments work together to help make Asia a powerhouse in this sector, or will the Western giants triumph? Either way, Bright Box is positioned to lead the way on providing connected car technology that benefits drivers, passengers and all road users.

The Potential For Connected Cars in Asia was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Automakers love millennials, and this is not a surprising fact since they work and are able to pay for their products. Auto market is looking for innovative ways to reach this group, and it is not easy. In our report, we have tried to combine the results of our large analytical study of the data of 1M real Millennial trips and recommendations concerning marketing campaigns. They use our Connected Car solution, which indicates that they are drivers who are open to using technology. We have analyzed their behavior in order to help marketers at automakers and dealerships understand how to work with this audience, what to rely on when developing a marketing strategy, where to advertise and what to do in order to gain a repeat customer.

We did not put forward any hypotheses, but we simply asked questions whose answers would allow us to make proposals about how automakers and dealers should conduct their marketing activities. We formulated our proposals concerning measures to promote dealers and automakers on the basis of the results obtained.

I am happy to share with you the top 10 insights that we have found by studying the driving behavior of Millennials.

• Trips that are completed at an average speed of over 100 kph are mostly recorded in Spain (3%), compared to Germany and France (about 1.5%), and the UK and Italy (less than 1%). If you have information about the speed that your customers are traveling in your toolbox, you will have a more complete profile of your customer. I will keep the intrigue and offer you to download our full report to find out who are the most likely to have lead feet in Europe.
• Next, we decided to look at the peaks of millennial activity during the day. We made the charts demonstrating the number of trips that are taken at different times of the day by country. Do you know who those early raisers are on the roads? In France, drivers wake up early and are already on the road at 6 am. This time represents the first peak. The next activity stream is observed at 8:30 am. Peaks of driver activity allow us to contact our customers in time, offer them a particular advertisement in time, as well as to properly set up service notifications as well as any other types of advertising.

• Some automakers and dealers have noticed that millennials have a decreased desire to drive a car. We decided to see how millennials used the car during the day, and then we tried to see if there were any patterns in how they used the car during the week, month, and year. Here I can say that on average, millennial drivers drive more between Thursday and Saturday than on other days of the week. They drive much more on Friday than on the other days of the week.
• In talking about the average amount of time that millennial drivers spend behind the wheel by season, we concluded that Millennials prefer not to travel by private car in the summer.
• Together with activity peaks that vary depending on the season, we decided to investigate whether millennial drivers go through periods when they do not use their cars. And it turned out that millennials, on the whole, do not tend to take long breaks from using a car.
• Our report is primarily focused on players in the automotive market, so that is why we decided to help dealerships by providing them with information about car dealership visitation by millennials. As a result, we found out that, on average, millennials go to the dealer once every 3 months. A total of 25% go to the dealer once a month. And 10% visit once a year or less. Also, we analyzed the correlation between trips to the car dealer on holidays and weekends, and we have broken down the statistics by country to obtain a more meaningful result.
• We also found it interesting to understand do millennials prefer big city parking lots or on-site parking at their buildings? It seems to us that information about parking could be useful to those who wish to place offline ads. Millennials mostly park spontaneously, i.e., we have learned that they spend quite a lot of money on city parking.

• When formulating questions based on the data, we understood that marketers not only at automakers and dealers, but also every company that does business with the millennial generation could draw the greatest insights from precisely this part of the study. So we decided to research what destinations do millennials visit most frequently. Based on the information obtained, it can be concluded that millennials use their cars most of all to visit places associated with food. They drive their cars to restaurants and bars.
• We also decided to assess how aggressive millennial drivers are. To do this, we used Remoto Scoring AI, which assesses the aggressiveness of drivers based on the telematics data that is collected from their trips. So according to the scoring results the average millennial is a more aggressive driver than the typical older driver.

Don’t wait around. Start building a sound marketing strategy and improving your communication with millennials, the most active audience of consumers with our report “Millennials on the Move”. Complete the form here to get your free copy.

Millennials on the Move: top 10 insights about millennials driving behaviour based on 1M trips was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thanks to advancements in connected car technology and large investments by the automotive industry, digital innovation is not only transforming every aspect of buying, owning or renting a car, it’s also changing how we view our relationship with the car and the time we spend travelling in it.

The Digital Revolution in Automotive

More and more car buyers are making purchasing decisions online, rather than in a dealership. The internet gives buyers as much information as they could want about every car that exists, including 360-degree virtual tours and reviews from drivers. They can even complete their purchase online.

However, people still prefer to buy from dealerships — for now. But the pace of technological change means that dealerships have to embrace the digital revolution that is driving this new customer behaviour.

Connected car technologies from companies such as Bright Box Remoto can support the digital transformation of dealerships and help drivers get the best from their cars. By using real-time data collected from the car, dealerships can provide superior customer service and drive incremental sales and revenues, all via an easy-to-use app, to significantly increase customer lifetime value. Car dealerships get to understand their customers better and ensure they anticipate their changing needs over the lifetime of the car. That ranges from discussing and arranging car finance, insurance assistance, vehicle registration and or extra connectivity features.

In fact, one connected car can generate higher revenues over its lifecycle than 10 non-connected cars, according to KPMG’s Global Automotive Executive Summary.

Benefits For Drivers

All this new technology and powerful connected car platforms brings many benefits for car owners. From making the in-car experience more enjoyable for passengers, to reducing the likelihood of accidents.

Nowadays, people spend a lot of hours driving and enjoy having additional services in their cars that make their lives easier. They want to have special entertainment apps in their cars which integrate their social media and media centers. When passengers can stream movies onto their devices over the in-car wi-fi, rather than having to endure the driver’s music choice, that has to be an improvement!

People also want features such as driver assistance, alerts for hazards or weather conditions and warnings about potential collisions. Plus everyone needs navigation information when driving in an unknown area and benefits from being informed about how to avoid traffic jams, leading to smaller queues and faster journeys, which is less stressful for the driver and better for the environment.

And, in the Middle East, Bright Box has seen just how much customers enjoy their remote car control feature so they can start the vehicle and adjust the air conditioning before entering the car when temperatures reach over 40 degrees centigrade!

Digital self-diagnostic systems let you know when it’s time for a service. It can even tell you when it’s time to pump up your tyres. AI technology collates data from your car and compares it to what is happening with other drivers’ connected cars to predict when your car parts are about to need replacing. Self-diagnostic maintenance helps drivers save money, identifying small problems before they become large ones. It also helps prevent accidents due to malfunctioning parts.

Finally, the voice-controlled smart devices we love to use in the home are now available for the car. Apple’s CarPlay brought Siri into the car in 2014. Google’s in-car Android system allows for voice-control for Google searches. This year, Amazon is releasing the Echo Auto,a voice-controlled speaker for your car. It brings all the functionality of Alexa into the car, piggybacking on your car’s wi-fi, or your phone’s mobile connection.

Challenges in the future

As well as benefits, the advancement of in-car technology throws up challenges for the auto sector to solve.

Most of the controversy over the integration of digital into cars is around data security. When you drive a connected car, you produce a large amount of data. This data records where and when you drive, the routes you take, even what you listen to. This data helps car companies improve their products and the way they market to you.

Some people are unwilling to provide their personal data to any company, whilst others are not concerned at all where their data goes. Perhaps consumers should be given an option whether to share their data and with who. For example, they might be happy to share information about their driving style with insurance companies, to benefit from cheaper premiums, but not prepared to share it with ecommerce or social media companies.

Keeping this data secure is of paramount importance. The industry is continually innovating to make sure drivers’ data never falls into the wrong hands. Bright Box ensures that the data it collects is completely independent,cannot be compromised and does not accept any unauthorised types of commands. The driver is thus always safe because Bright Box makes them invulnerable to scenarios involving the vehicle’s system being hacked remotely.

The logical next step for autotech is the self-driving car. Tech giants such as Google and Tesla are investing billions into developing autonomous driving technology. Smart cities like Dubai are already installing infrastructure to send and receive signals from self-driving cars. This throws up a whole new set of challenges. Will they be safe? How will the roads cope when some vehicles are driven by humans and others by robots? In the meantime, connected car platforms, like Bright Box’s Remoto, are an easy way of embracing the latest autotech, whilst still maintaining driving control.

The Future

The digital transformation keeps on coming! The introduction of 5G wireless connections will have a huge impact on the auto sector, especially on the development of autonomous driving. For example, people will be able to work or watch a movie whilst on the road, knowing that their autonomous vehicle is driving safely. AVs will be communicating with other vehicles, traffic planning systems and have instant access to traffic information as well as road and weather conditions.

As part of our future on the roads we can also look forward to Vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) connectivity, V2I (vehicle-to-infrastructure) and V2P (vehicle-to-personal) communications which‘will lead to a safer, more efficient and more comfortable future mobility. It is an inevitable requirement for the long-term vision towards accident free and highly automated driving.’ according to the Car2Car Communication Consortium.

To conclude, the digital transformation of the automotive sector brings benefits to the automotive industry, helping them manage their supply chains, connect with and understand their customers better and improve their sales and marketing activities.

But it’s the drivers who will benefit most, able to enjoy their time in their car much more, knowing that the majority of technical issues are being monitored and that once autonomous vehicles come into play, they’ll be able to take their hands off the wheel completely and just enjoy the journey.

How Digital Automotive Innovations Are Benefiting Car Users was originally published in Bright Box — Driving to the future on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.