CES Wireless is predicting that GPS devices will soon be integrated with smart phones that will serve as the delivery mechanism for tracking, vehicle diagnostics and engine maintenance information back to the home office. “The now lonesome, covert GPS tracking “black box” installed in the vehicle will become a Bluetooth or Wifi enabled ‘telematics’ box communicating vehicle diagnostics and engine maintenance to the office, using the drivers Smartphone as the transportation mechanism,” said Pat Lohan, vp of sales & marketing. “It is entirely possible that by 2013 this telematics box will be a standard feature on all new vehicles purchased.”
To take advantage of this expected growth, CES is highlighting its Mobi software package. Mobi can be installed on any Windows-compatible device (Mobile, XP, Vista, Windows 7). It provides GPS tracking, job/text dispatch, status tracking and a driver entered information facility. This information is then delivered back to the tracking software for the fleet manager’s use.
According to CES, Mobi is device-independent; does not require the use of a separate GPS tracking device in the vehicle; supports handheld terminals, PDAs, smart phones, laptops and vertical market devices; allows the user to continue to use their existing software solutions, and does not require a second airtime plan.
Mobi can also be fully integrated with third-party software systems, including transportation and service-specific software packages.
