Let’s get back to our roots: How Bright Box solution has been developing since 2012? Part 1
We are starting a cycle of posts on the history of our products. The goal is to explain what is Remoto Cloud Services (cloud-based Connected Car Platform) that anyone can afford. And the understanding of the evolution of our products is the key to it. Enjoy and ask questions related to the products.
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.
