Greenzle by Kienlze: Smartphone app for drivers for self-coaching
Goal
Intuitive app to promote safe and fuel-efficient driving with the addition of a self-coaching function for drivers.
Solution
Kienzle Automotive offers its customers a mobile app that enables drivers to receive feedback on their driving behavior while driving. In addition, the app provides an analysis of historical driving behavior to monitor changes over a longer period of time. Incentives to use the app are provided by integrated gamification elements.
Key factors for the successful implementation of the app
The app should increase acceptance among drivers for its regular use. To this end, it offers an opportunity for self-coaching for HSEQ (Health, Safety, Environment, Quality) purposes in order to improve their own driving behavior and make truck journeys safer and more fuel-efficient.
The biggest challenge was to develop a solution that would be accepted and used with pleasure. Only if the app is used regularly and the drivers trust the results of the feedback can it develop its full potential. To this end, it is important to minimize distractions while driving and ensure stable availability even with fluctuating connection quality.
As driving data cannot usually be retrieved directly from the hardware installed in the vehicle, this is often done via web interfaces. This technical challenge also had to be overcome.
Hosting in Azure for stable app deployment
The app was developed using Flutter, while the backend is based on prodot's vehicle telematics platform hosted in Azure, which is mainly written in C#. By using the existing pipeline for processing telematics data, we were able to significantly reduce the development effort for the app. In addition, the app integrates seamlessly into the overall driver coaching concept developed by Kienzle, which is also integrated into our platform.
In order to cope with connection interruptions while driving, the live feedback uses Signal-R for data transmission and aggregates events over a longer period of time. This means that even delayed events can be meaningfully integrated into the feedback.
Holistic concept for greater safety and efficiency
The Greenzle by Kienzle app expands the existing concept for safe and fuel-efficient driving. In addition to monthly reports to identify long-term trends, the app now offers direct feedback for self-coaching during and after the journey in order to improve driving behavior in a targeted manner. In order to minimize distractions while driving and at the same time ensure the greatest possible transparency of the feedback, the live and historical feedback are tailored to their respective focal points.
The live feedback provides an immediate, easy-to-understand assessment of the current driving behavior. At the end of the ride, a summary is presented with all relevant events and their impact on the feedback. Finally, the historical feedback enables a detailed analysis of driving behavior over the course of a month or year.
"We have been developing successful and profitable solutions for sustainable fleet management in partnership with prodot for over 10 years. The products that have already been developed are characterized by high usability and running stability. In the cooperation with prodot, holistic thinking is always evident, which focuses on the overall system instead of looking at projects in isolation. prodot as an implementation partner for holistic solutions? Again and again!"
Dr. Ralf Kolb
Senior Advisor
About the company
Kienzle Automotive GmbH
For over 75 years, Kienzle has been a leading provider of products and services in the automotive sector. The products and services offered to more than 10,000 customers range from Kienzle tachographs, which have been established for decades, to complex telematics systems for controlling and optimizing vehicle fleets. This range is supplemented by technologically related system solutions in the marine, cab and vehicle electronics sectors.
