New services for B2B and B2C
‘autoSense is real IoT’
autoSense was founded in May 2018. Today, the car connectivity business is running smoothly. CEO Jaap Vossen explains why his Swiss ecosystem for cars is growing so fast and the role IoT is playing.
Text: Tanja Kammermann, Image: Nadja Etter,
Jaap Vossen, your autoSense solution is not the only connectivity product available for cars. What makes your business model unique?
Two things: we are bringing the worlds of B2B and B2C closer together, because we offer products both for businesses and for private customers. Secondly, and most importantly, we are completely focused on Switzerland, where we are building a national ecosystem dedicated to cars. I don’t know anyone else who is putting end users’ data in an open ecosystem with their consent.
AMAG, Migrol, driving schools and now Zurich Insurance Group. The autoSense ecosystem is growing rapidly. How have you persuaded companies to work with you?
In a lot of different ways. It depends greatly on the particular partner or company. We always ask the question: where are the partner’s pain points? Do they know their customers? Do they want to improve efficiency? Do they want to increase customer loyalty or bring new business models to market? With these questions in mind, we talked with people and showed them what added value and benefits autoSense has to offer.
Your original background is in fact in IoT. What role does the Internet of Things play for autoSense?
To be completely honest, I don’t think in terms of AI, IoT, or Big Data. For me, we are IoT. We connect cars and things – which is, basically, what IoT is. So for us, IoT is a means to an end, but the connectivity is crucial to us, because we can’t do anything without connectivity, and we even have two connections running simultaneously. Firstly, we have to constantly transmit all of the data from the vehicle. Secondly, we provide the customer a hotspot in their vehicle. And for the connections to be stable while both are working simultaneously and independently of each other is a really big technical challenge.
Tell us, what’s your favourite autoSense feature?
Well, we’re standing here at a Migrol petrol station, so it would have to be the autoSense Fuel app, our new refuelling assistant. Let me show you.
Jaap Vossen, CEO of autoSense says, ‘We are IoT’ and shows us how easy it is to use the new refuelling app.
You recently launched a new car insurance model. Tell us all about it.
We partnered up with the insurance company Dextra to market an insurance model for occasional drivers. It only bills the effective number of kilometres driven and is called Flexdrive. The idea is simple: less driving, less risk, lower premiums.
About autoSense
Founded in 2018, autoSense has quickly gained a foothold in the Swiss market as a major player in connectivity for smart vehicles. autoSense is a Zurich-based joint start-up owned by Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd and AMAG Group AG. It focuses on developing innovative automobile services for private individuals and companies. The company uses an open ecosystem platform with plug-and-play functionality. It offers advanced fleet management solutions and driver-centric data intelligence together with partner services that are constantly being further developed.
Data-driven business models
What applies to cars is conceivable for every other type of device and object. Once connected to the Internet of Things, it is possible to tap into previously unused data. With the right combination of other technologies, such as cloud, analytics, security and new ecosystem partners, this data can be used for entirely new, lucrative service models and to provide a greater customer focus as a recipe for success.
Enterprise IoT from Swisscom combines various access technologies, platforms and a large ecosystem. Thanks to a modular approach that is not tied to specific technologies, customers can easily connect and manage IoT objects, process IoT data in useful ways and grow their businesses as a result. Swisscom also offers access to a well-established IoT ecosystem and other elements, such as cloud, security and data analytics solutions to integrate IoT projects at every level. Swisscom has 15 years of experience as an IoT pioneer.
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