Fort Collins, CO (Aug. 29, 2013) – Crashboxx Telematics is releasing a technical guide for designers and manufacturers of GPS-equipped OBD II telematics devices to help them create truly crash-capable products.
The document, Crash Detection & Reporting: A Technical Guide For Developers of OBD II Telematics Devices, assists engineers in taking GPS-equipped telematics devices to the next level of fleet management – fully automated crash detection and reporting, in near real time.
Crashboxx is a leading developer of advanced driving behavior and crash analysis software for insurance and fleet telematics applications.
“As we engaged with manufacturers of GPS and OBD II devices around the world we learned – and many manufacturers acknowledged – they may not have the skill set in-house to tackle the challenges of taking a GPS tracking platform and making it a true black box, capable of capturing, discriminating, reporting and storing vehicle crash events,” said Peter Byrne, Crashboxx president. “We are willing to share some of our experience as a developer of event data recorders (EDRS) and expert software to help them figure it out.”
Byrne said GPS telematics device manufacturers (both OBD II plug-and-play and hardwired units) are adding more new features to remain competitive and to gain an edge in the fiercely competitive market for fleet management and insurance telematics systems. Impact detection and collision reporting will be a feature more often on devices from now on, Byrne said, in a market where some 15 million vehicle crashes occur annually† and cost $166 billion‡ (includes material damage, bodily injury claims, lost productivity and emergency services response).
“Our desire to help device manufacturers certainly has an element of self-interest,” said Jeff Jenkins, Crashboxx VP of design and engineering. “As developers of advanced software solutions for insurance claims and fleet management, we need more than a simple “Yes, you’ve had an impact.” We need to know the entire crash event from beginning to end, sampled at a certain rate, transmitted in a given format and stored locally.
Earlier this year, Crashboxx released Crashboxx DENT™ (Damage Estimates in Near Real Time) to an enthusiastic response from the market. DENT was designed to fully automate the process of insurance claims for material damage, automatic crash notification (ACN), NOFL, and a preliminary estimate of the crush and cost to repair. Delivering a fully automated, machine to machine (M2M) crash-recording-and-analysis system for insurance and fleet management requires crash-capable, affordable OBD II hardware, together with back-end software to interpret the data.
Manufacturers who would like a copy of the technical guide can contact Crashboxx at (970) 367-7383 or by email.
About Crashboxx Telematics
Crashboxx Telematics, based in Fort Collins CO, is a developer of advanced vehicle telematics and machine-to-machine solutions for insurance (PAYD, UBI, Claims), fleet, consumer and offender management markets. Our mission is to develop world-class, automated risk-management solutions, using telematics and M2M technology, reducing risk and adding value for customers worldwide.
† In 2010 just over 5 million crashes were reported to the police. NHTSA estimates a further 10 million crashes go unreported. “Crashes vs. Congestion: What’s the Cost to Society?” published by AAA March 8, 2008.
‡ “Crashes vs. Congestion: What’s the Cost to Society?”, Published by AAA March 8th 2008.
Source: InnovatioNews