Bosch has announced that it is running a pilot with Socar which will help to elevate the car-sharing experience in Malaysia. Car sharing is seen as a viable business opportunity for car owners and an option for users who want to drive a private car without owning one. While the idea sounds great, the model has its own sets of challenges such as cars being damaged and members returning the car that smells like an ashtray.
Unlike a typical car rental, car-sharing vehicles are self-collected and self-returned by members without any physical checks by a staff. If you’ve used the service, you would have collected cars with rubbish, cigarette smell and physical damages which translates to high operating costs if they are not addressed.
According to Bosch, they are offering their in-vehicle sensing (IVS) solution based on their 3S IoT approach (sensors, software and services) that can detect smoke and damage to the vehicle. When the solution was announced last year, Bosch claims that the sensors are capable of detecting accidental damage while parking and it will know if a minor collision occurred when it is parked and not rented out. Car-sharing operators will be able to get the latest information in real time, allowing them to take action before the next customer collects the car. This will ensure comfortable and safe rides for users of the shared vehicles.
If an errant member has gotten into an accident or light up a cigarette in the car, the system would be able to pinpoint the incident to a specific rental period. This will enable Socar to take action against the specific member who’s actually responsible. Bosch’s solution also uses artificial intelligence (AI) to improve mobility services such as enhancing user experience and fleet’s operational efficiency. For Socar, the system can help reduce downtime in the fleet, whether it is due to damage to the vehicle or having to send the car for cleaning, which translates to higher availability of clean vehicles to meet the mobility needs of their members. In the long run, the solution aims to elevate the viability of car sharing for a more sustainable mobility ecosystem.
Bosch Malaysia Managing Director Klaus Landhaeusser said “Mobility today is more than just transporting goods and people; it is an experience. By collaborating to meet the demands of Malaysia’s mobility users, Bosch and Socar are driven to innovate on technologies and services that work together to make stress-free mobility a reality.”
Commenting on the pilot, Socar Mobility Malaysia CEO Shylendra Nathan said “As a technology-empowered company focused on optimising innovation to expand our mobility offerings, we are always on the lookout for like-minded businesses with the right technology to advance the future of flexible mobility. This pilot with Bosch not only enables us to improve operational times for our fleet, but also opens new avenues for elevating the car ownership experience.”
According to Bosch, the collaboration will be expanded to aftermarket workshops with Trevo, their people-to-people (P2P) car-sharing platform. There are currently nearly 5,000 aftermarket workshops in Malaysia and Bosch is promoting Trevo through the eXtra loyalty programme for workshop owners to be among the hosts in Trevo’s P2P car-sharing marketplace. The workshop owners will receive benefits for successful Trevo user sign-ups.
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