A Software Architecture Approach to Remote Vehicle Diagnostics

Abstract

Over the past decades the technological development of vehicles has evolved rapidly and today almost everything in a vehicle is controlled by electronic systems. At present time there are no signs of any weakening regarding this trend. With the maturity of wireless communication technologies it is possible to provide new kind of telematics services. A category of telematics concern vehicle maintenance and these services depend and take advantage of electronic systems in vehicles. Remote vehicle diagnostics is such a service, which provides opportunities to conduct vehicle diagnostics work remotely. For a while now, there has been optimistic expectations on the potential of providing such services to customers among the automotive industry. These expectations have largely been based on the assumption that remote vehicle diagnostics could prevent breakdowns by detecting vehicle problems at an early stage. However, the true potential have yet to be revealed and manufacturers struggle in finding profitable business models. This master thesis studies remote vehicle diagnostics intended for the commercial vehicle aftermarket. Reasons to why remote vehicle diagnostics services have failed to reach a strong market penetration are outlined and explained. We have found that such services are often based on a weak architectural design. Therefore, this study examines how a suitable software architecture, for an aftermarket remote vehicle diagnostics system, should be designed. We argue that such software architecture should focus on a well-prepared flexible design and cost-effectiveness. This study has used an explorative approach towards remote vehicle diagnostics with a clear connection to the thoughts of “Practical Informatics”. The conclusion of our study is presented as several design principles that together contribute to software architecture suitable for the aftermarket. Further, we describe how we have implemented our architecture using prototyping, to validate the architecture in real environment and derivate the accomplishment of “proof of concept”.