Driver coaching
A smart driving assistant
We ensure drivers get the best out of their electrified vehicle by reducing their energy consumption
Why does it matter to us?
Car makers invested for decades in making combustion engines more efficient through continuous innovation and calibrations, but there is still a long way to go for electrified vehicles.
As a result, today’s electrified vehicles lack of efficiency as these are not optimized for city or highway driving and neither are adapted to usage duration (short vs. long trips).
On top of this, strengthened CO2 measures have been put in place and we witness the rise of the 100% connected cars. With WLTP (1) homologation system, car data have to be made available to authorities from 2021 model year onwards. This would make it possible for authorities to track fuel consumption, CO2 emissions and check whether cars are being used in electric or non-electric mode.
Lastly, today’s infrastructures are not yet optimized for electrified vehicles (e.g.: road signs, speed limit changes). This has an impact on fuel consumption & overall driving comfort. Practically, it means drivers are losing energy in the deceleration and acceleration phases.
With all these constraints in mind, we thought about how can we support drivers in the transition to electrified vehicles, how can we help dealers to remove the barrier to purchase to electrified vehicles, how can we demonstrate the full benefits of hybrid & plug-in hybrid vehicles?
It all starts with drivers and how they adapt their driving behavior. We want to provide our expertise into educating, supporting and engaging drivers based on their core motivations.
A proper on-boarding to electrified vehicles
On-boarding driver to a new technology is key for long-term adoption and optimized usage. Unfortunately, car dealers do not always have enough time to fully explain these technologies. A short test drive, a brief explanation and the driver is left on his own and the first disappointments may start (higher than expected fuel consumption, not properly understanding car indicators).
We ensure a smooth transition from car dealers to end user. From the moment drivers leave their dealerships, they get the customer experience they deserve (proper on-boarding, tailored recommendation, contextualized coaching, weekly insights and incentives). Through an app or as live recommendations while driving, customers get all their questions answered and more importantly, gets the best out of his hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicle.
Based on drivers core motivations
Like with any topic, in order to learn or change a habit, you must first be motivated & engaged to do so. While they are on boarded, drivers get an opportunity to tell us about what matters most to them (reduce fuel consumption, drive more efficiently, reduce CO2 emissions, compare vs. other drivers, feel comfortable driving a hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicle). Drivers will receive after a few trips, personalized insights & recommendations based on their selected motivation.
Personalized coaching
Each driver has unique habits, driving styles and personal preferences. This is why coaching must be personalized. Our solution considers drivers habits, route learning, external temperature, user preferences and driver’s progression.
Recommendations are filtered in order to only display the most relevant advice having the highest impact on fuel consumption. As the driver progresses, he gradually learns how to get an optimized performance on each of his trips.
Incorporating route learning is key as drivers may be less receptive to follow recommendations based on time of the day or be more receptive during the weekend. In consequence, our solution can adapt the frequency and time of recommendations to best fit with drivers’ profiles (e.g: short vs. long trips, daily vs new trips, week day vs. weekend trips).
On top of this, drivers get the best from the community and get references from top eco-drivers on similar trips. They can therefore easily see what their remaining margin for progression is; challenge the best drivers or learn what the average performance in their area is based on similar car model, external temperature and type of trip.
Contextualized
We know that the biggest opportunity for improvement is on daily trips as these accounts for 80% of trips. We ensure drivers will get very straightforward advice for a quick progression.
Advice should be easily understandable, applicable and simple to remember. It is always easier to learn when a specific advice is put in context.
Thanks to our map expertise, we provide coaching taking into consideration slopes, speed limits, road obstacles (e.g: highway entrance and exit, roundabout, stop, traffic lights, intersection, speed limits change). Considering this map attributes is key to ensure a contextualized and immersive coaching experience.
Additionally, we integrate external information such as traffic or weather data in order to maintain or remove a recommendation which was not relevant or could not be applied.
Lastly, before and after obstacles, drivers get live feedback so that they understand what they did well or not well.
Score & recommendations
What would be a recommendation without putting it into perspective? In order for drivers to understand what their margins of progression is, we provide several tools such as an eco-score, reference point for EV time and fuel consumption as well as comparisons with community.
The eco-score is based on management of constant speed, acceleration and braking. Our algorithm considers energy loss in acceleration, braking phases and also evaluates constant speed management through deviation vs. speed limits.
Challenges & lifelong learning
Once drivers master the key principles, it is about practicing over and over again to ensure long-terms benefits are maintained. After a while, users tend to go back to their old habits, to ensure they keep their best performance, driver coaching system monitors and consequently increase or decrease the frequency of coaching based on user progress. By analyzing trends, most regular trips and deviation with driver’s community, we can easily identify which drivers need further coaching.
But let’s not forget that to learn and improve at any topic, you need to be continuously motivated to do so. To make the coaching even more engaging, we integrate gamified elements such as scores, points, challenges & rewards built around progression levels towards electrified vehicles drive mastery. Drivers will realize fuel savings and will also be able to trade points for other services free of charge.
Expected benefits
With our solution, drivers can easily learn how to best drive a hybrid or plug-in hybrid vehicle which could lead to savings of 30% fuel consumption.
(1) WLTP: Worldwide harmonised light vehicle test procedure
Why Aisin?
Aisin works with almost every OEM globally, which means the vehicle you drove or rode in today is likely equipped with Aisin parts or technology.
Strong of our +28 years of worldwide leadership in navigation and geolocation technologies such as precise positioning and map data enrichment, we combine our expertise with our extensive knowledge of electrified powertrains range.
If you want to know more, please contact us: