IoT Solutions for Cars - Volvo
Software that enables vehicle-to-server communication.
1 million+
Vehicles use software created by us
4k+ requests
Per second are received at peak times
100 GB+
Of data is processed each day
99,9999999%+
Of uptime
About the project
Volvo Group Connected Solutions champions vehicle connectivity to create more efficient, sustainable solutions to everyday needs. VGCS services trucks, buses and construction vehicles, not passenger cars
Country
Sweden
Technology
Java 8
Cooperation
2021 - Ongoing
Why is Softkit a perfect partner for Swedish companies?
Softkit has been providing Volvo Group Connected Solutions with staff augmentation services for a year and a half now. Our experts became the co-creators of many groundbreaking features, powering the connectivity of Volvo vehicles
When someone buys a vehicle, they drive the first 100 miles to make sure there are no manufacturing defects
Then the car sends an activation request to our server
After this, the software starts collecting and transmitting data. Parameters are many and varied, including fuel consumption, pavement quality, angular velocity, speed, the presents or absents of technical issues, such as wiring overheating and much more.
Using new technologies to ensure 99,999999%+ of truck uptime
Rigid requirements to resilience and speed—our solutions
Volvo collaborates with many delivery industry leaders, including DHL, FedEx and DPD
Reliability is crucial for Volvo's partners since any downtime can potentially cost them millions. In service-level agreement (SLA) terms Volvo commits to providing 99.9999999% uptime and processing requests under 500 milliseconds
Remote diagnostics results:
Reduce diagnostics times
by 70%
Reduce repair times
by 22%
Target markets for the software are the countries of Europe, Australia and the US
We partnered with telecommunications companies operating in each serviced country. They provided us with their SIM cards and an opportunity to integrate their APIs with our software. The data is transmitted over the internet or by SMS. For construction equipment, satellite options are also available. Security measures include verification that the vehicle's SIM card is authorized
Multi-region Deployment, DDNS and Geographic Load Balancing to process requests faster
To process requests faster, we used multi-region deployment, dynamic DNS, and geographic load balancing
It means requests are handled by a server located in the same region as the vehicle that sends them. For instance, vehicles in Australia are serviced by servers located in Australia. About half of the processing is cloud-based, using AWS. Another half is hardware-based. Lowering ping also enabled us to increase data transmission speed
Front-end admin panel development using React and micro-frontend
We developed a front-end panel for solving various administrative issues, such as activating and deactivating a car, learning its status
Thus, if an automatic activation request sent by a vehicle fails, we can activate it manually. To create the front end, we used React and implemented micro-frontend architecture
Script for seeing future software costs
A self-written script for CI/CD deployment enabled developers to see beforehand
The future costs of deploying and running the created software. Thus, if the cost of software is significantly above average, developers could influence the situation
Providing segregated data for Volvo Logistics Solutions
Information collected from vehicles was used to create efficient logistical solutions
Volvo Logistics Solutions is SaaS enabling transportation companies to manage their fleets. It calculates optimal vehicle routes and swiftly informs management of any issues that may arise
Safety comes first — collected data is used to prevent future accidents
Whenever an accident happens, all the data pertaining to it is thoroughly analyzed to find the causes.
This information is then used to make future generations of vehicles safer. For instance, now cameras can detect if a driver is falling asleep and send an automatic notification to the manager.
Our soft skills — we helped the company with onboarding procedure
Knowledge transfer is a challenge, particularly for complex projects such as this one
On average, the onboarding procedure for Volvo developers is talking about a month. Our experts demonstrated high levels of their soft skills by actively helping newcomers adjust. To simplify the onboarding process, we suggested and volunteered to film a number of instructional videos
Significant Achievement — completely rewriting monitoring system, previously running on legacy code
We had an exceptional task before us – to rewrite the monitoring system that was running on legacy code. Looking like a dashboard, the system was used by the technical support team to see request statistics and monitor for any unusual alterations
BEFORE
Before the update, Volvo was using Graphite. Unfortunately, the tool didn't allow the company to set up alerts for system failures
THE PROCESS
Modernizing the system was a real challenge. It required rewriting terabytes of code as well as redesigning the dashboard and all the reports. This part of the project took nearly a year to implement
RESULTS
The Prometheus time-series database replaced Graphite. It is optimized for saving and processing queued requests. And importantly, now admins can see data for different time periods, be it yesterday, last month or something else, with several clicks
The new monitoring system works about 10 times faster. Moreover, since Prometheus is optimized for our needs, we could use fewer servers and save infrastructure resources
We connected Grafana to Prometheus, which allowed us to set up system alerts
Softkit cherishes opportunities to work with companies from Sweden
At Softkit, we:
Pay our taxes ourselves
We pay taxes ourselves, according to local legislation — no need to worry about this aspect.
Provide agility
Due to the peculiarities of the labor market, commencing a project in Sweden often takes about three months and sometimes longer. If a company is in need of a faster solution, we can help. Starting a project might take a week. In three months, you might already have an MVP version of your product. Contact us to get a more precise timeline estimate.
Take care of social benefits of our employees ourselves
Our company provides its employees with all the necessary social benefits, such as days off, sick leaves, weekends and insurance. You get the final estimate for our work, no hidden or additional expenses involved.
Understand the peculiarities of the Swedish IT market
Sweden is one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world. However, the local IT market experiences a shortage of developers. Our experts are ready to step in.
Ensure that contract terms will reflect your needs
Let us know if you have any contract details in mind. For example, you might need the capability to terminate a contract within a shorter period than usual. This might slightly affect the price, but it can be done.
Welcome any onboarding procedure you see fit.
Clients from Sweden often prefer seeing their future colleagues in person. We have experience organizing onboarding online or offline, whichever is more convenient for our client. Currently, however, several of our developers from Ukraine, who are liable for military service, cannot leave the country. Those people can work online and would be glad to meet their Swedish colleagues personally after Ukraine's victory. And, of course, every client is always welcome to visit our office in Zaporizhzhia.
1.5+
years
Of successful cooperation between Volvo Group Connected Solutions and Softkit
1
year
To completely rewrite the monitoring system previously running on legacy code
2
professionals
Dedicated to the Volvo project development team
