Smart EV Routing for optimized EV travel by WirelessCar on AWS

WirelessCar has over twenty years of experience in developing, delivering, and operating secure digital solutions and products for connected cars. WirelessCar offers Smart EV Routing which is a SaaS API product designed for any automaker who wants to offer their electric vehicle (EV) customers a state-of-the-art route planner. Accurate and reliable EV route planning addresses common concerns related to long-distance travel, improving the driver’s journey.

Powered by connected car data, WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing optimizes charging and reduces range anxiety by providing tailored navigation tools that match the EV driver’s needs. Optimized routing during long-distance drives delivers accurate charging guidance on when, where, and for how long to charge. Smart EV Routing product is API based well architected product running on AWS and using AWS serverless services, this makes, automakers (OEMs) to easily adopt this product and make EV driver’s journey smooth and efficient. This blog discusses how WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing product on AWS collects data from different sources, creates, and serves accurate routes, recommendations and information to various customer and vehicle endpoints.

Overview of solution

There are many complex factors that impact an EV’s range. Uncertainties about the real battery range, as well as when and where to charge, can lead to low EV adoption. OEMs can facilitate the transition from internal combustion engines (ICEs) and hybrid vehicles to EVs by addressing primary consumer concerns, such as running out of battery power and not being able to find an available charging station. WirelessCar offers Smart EV Routing which is designed to provide OEMs with in-car navigation tailored specifically to the EV drivers’ needs. This product offers flexibility in choosing the map provider and charging networks. The product uses the specific vehicle model’s charging curve, combined with live data from the vehicle and environment, to provide the most optimized route for the driver. Additionally, each individual vehicle’s consumption model is continually optimized based on driving patterns, ensuring accurate routing.

For each OEM, available solutions and capabilities of WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing vary based on factors such as geographical region, car models, specifications, regulations, and more. WirelessCar provides OEM-specific services and integrations, along with its SaaS API products, to help achieve efficient time-to-market with the highest reliability, quality, and security. Smart EV Routing is a crucial link between an OEM and their B2B and B2C customers looking to transition from ICEs to EVs.

Figure 1: WirelessCar EV product and data aggregation overview

While Smart EV Routing comes with preset partners and integrations, the OEM establishes the ground rules for what content will be used for their implementation of Smart EV Routing. If partnerships already exist between the OEM and specific charging network providers, the OEM can specify their preferences in Smart EV Routing product and display priorities based on their agreements. In addition, the OEM can choose to use their existing traffic, map, and navigation provider in the routing advice and calculations, ensuring an alignment between the map data in the car and the calculations in the cloud. Figure 1 shows different APIs integrations and data point aggregations done to provide an accurate route with many custom customer requirements.

Figure 2: API integrations and data aggregation

The vehicle consumption model, along with a minimum set of data from connected EVs is used to create a route. This data is continuously consumed and enhanced to provide more accurate predictions and charging. Routing advice is provided as environmental factors and vehicle systems impact the range and charging characteristics at all time.

Since Smart EV Routing is a headless API product, an OEM looking to adopt Smart EV Routing has several options when it comes to the user interface. They include:

• Smartphone Apps — OEMs can integrate Smart EV Routing into their existing owner apps or develop a standalone app, and utilize each platform’s existing technologies like Apple CarPlay and Android Auto to provide a better navigation experience on the in-vehicle infotainment.
• In-vehicle infotainment (IVI) — OEMs can integrate Smart EV Routing into the IVI of the vehicle using platforms like Android Automotive or Linux-based OS.

Whether implemented by WirelessCar, a third party, or the OEM, the development organization of OEMs uses WirelessCar’s API to integrate with the Smart EV Routing service. These integrations allow the OEM to deliver a seamless experience between the mobile app/In Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) app used for setting preferences and planning. Figure 2 shows API integration and data aggregations needed for reliable EV routing.

An EV route planner uses a variety of parameters to plan the best possible route for an EV driver. This is particularly useful for long-distance travel, as many drivers still express concerns about the availability of EV charging stations, range anxiety, and the time needed for charging. Thanks to the EV route planner, drivers can enjoy their journey and the EV without worrying about these issues. It can interact with dynamic charging infrastructure to determine whether a charging station is available and functioning.

WirelessCar has reference implementations for Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and can deliver tailor-made solutions to OEMs looking for a fully integrated solution via a professional services engagement.

Solution

Vehicle data can be ingested on the cloud side in a cloud-to-cloud fashion, or ingested via the client (smartphone app / IVI). Once vehicle data and customer trip preferences are provided to the WirelessCar Smart EV Routing running on AWS, an optimized route plan is returned. The route plan is offered to the OEM customer through an API for use and integration on- and/or off-board. Through data analytics, WirelessCar can also help both car makers and charging infrastructure providers understand EV drivers’ patterns and decisions during longer trips.

The Smart EV Routing API acts as an entry point for developers and systems to implement features that allow users to plan trips, save trip plans, and access the routing and charging guidance from the WirelessCar backend services in AWS. The API exposes the end points via an Amazon API Gateway, an AWS fully managed service designed to make it easy for developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale.  Amazon API Gateway helps enable the OEM to build the routing data into their existing user interfaces. The developer portal is available to authenticated users and provides all of the necessary information to get started using the API’s features.

Figure 3: Smart EV Routing architecture diagram

OEMs can choose Smart EV Routing and many other products from WirelessCar for their connected mobility platforms or other needs. All products are API based, so OEMs can adopt all WirelessCar products or subset of them, depending on their need. For example, one could use WirelessCar’s Subscription Management to manage the provisioning and de-provisioning of a given service and its entire lifecycle (service payment, service renewal, service end-of-life).

OEM Integrations

The OEM integrations vary depending on vehicle generations and OEM in-house systems. Generally, OEMs include the factory data feed to get static information about factory-completed cars and components and their specifications and uplink and downlink messages to carry dynamic data between the car and WirelessCar’s backend.

The data needed to power the solution can be categorized as either static or dynamic data. Static data generally consists of descriptive data about the car, its VIN, make and model, as well as properties that make up the model’s associated baseline consumption model. Dynamic data comes from the car at varying frequencies like speed, temperature settings. A connected car can be configured with a subset of services, after which the car connects to the backend and communicates its status and position. Status data generally includes information about odometer, battery charge, battery health, temperature, tire pressure, and various other sensor data. All data is collected and stored in the OEM tenant in the region where the vehicle is operational. The exact data which is used in Smart EV Routing depends on what information is available from the connected car. In the case of a smartphone-based client, the GPS position of the phone could be used instead of the position of the vehicle. In addition to location data, the current state of charge as well as power consumption and regeneration is a minimum for providing accurate predictions for range and charging stops. External content integrations ensure that the external factors that impact range are also considered in the route calculation and guidance.

Analytics on EV data

All collected data provides numerous opportunities for data analysis, leading to a better understanding of factors influencing deviations from the expected charge curve and how/where the cars are charging on an aggregated level. Aggregating and anonymizing this data gives further information about customer behavior and use of EVs, as well as the EV’s impact on the charging infrastructure per region.

EV route planning supports OEMs in showcasing and positioning themselves as credible EV providers. It is a concrete way of showing customers that the company is working actively to make EV travel easier and more enjoyable. Addressing customers’ concerns regarding EVs helps facilitates EV adoption, and likely increases customer loyalty. It strengthens the brand as well as its position within the EV industry. Depending on the strategy and business model, an EV route planner can be used for direct or indirect revenue streams, such as through monetized digital services.

Conclusion

WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing solution, built on AWS, addresses the primary concerns of electric vehicle drivers, such as range anxiety and finding available charging stations. By providing accurate, reliable EV route planning based on real-time vehicle-generated data and external environmental factors, Smart EV Routing helps make long-distance EV travel more enjoyable and worry-free.

The flexibility of the solution allows OEMs to integrate their preferred map providers, charging networks, and other partners to create a tailored experience for their customers. Moreover, the continuous collection and analysis of data helps enable OEMs to have a deeper understanding of customer behavior and the impact of EVs on the charging infrastructure. This insight can be used to further refine the solution and support OEMs in their quest to position themselves as credible EV providers, ultimately increasing EV adoption and customer satisfaction.

To learn more about WirelessCar’s Smart EV Routing, please visit us online, contact us directly to book a meeting or demo or contact AWS. Learn more about AWS offerings at the AWS for automotive page, or contact your AWS team today.