ONBOARD WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY

Like cellular devices, onboard wireless communication systems are also evolving at a brisk pace while, at the same time, also multiplying functionality by linking various wireless technologies together. PeopleNet, for example, introduced a new tethered trailer tracking system in February called the Wi-VAN Gateway that utilizes Wi-Fi on the tractor, RFID technology on the trailer, and the company's g3 onboard computer to enable the back office to monitor trailer hook-ups, drops and their locations in real time.

"Once the new Wi-VAN Gateway on the tractor is in proximity with an equipped trailer, the two can start communicating with one another," says Tom Dorazio, product manager for PeopleNet. "The RFID tag signals the trailer identification number and its GPS location. The Wi-VAN Gateway, mounted inside the tractor, relays that information to the g3 computer, which sends it back to the PeopleNet Operating Center where the data is stored. Customers can access a series of reports based on this information, including Hooked Trailer, Trailer Locations, Alerts and Trailer History. Fleets can also retrieve data for integration into their back-office systems.

"This is a tethered trailer solution for people who do not need 24/7 monitoring," Dorazio says. "It is designed to provide a relatively low cost tracking solution for the fleets that can use it. What we are doing with the Wi-VAN Gateway is creating a wireless area around the vehicle. We are trying to move away from hard-wiring all the different peripherals on the truck. The Gateway gives us a platform to do that, a standard interface to multiple applications and devices from third parties.

"In the future, the Wi-VAN platform will enable the collection and integration of more comprehensive data, including things like tire pressure and reefer monitoring and more," he adds. "What we are seeing is that the point solutions are being driven by the fleets. Our opportunity is to integrate all those into a single solution process and get that information back to the fleets faster and in a unified way via one communication path."

DriverTech, designers of the DT4000 TruckPC Windows XP-embedded onboard computing system that takes advantage of satellite, cellular and Wi-Fi technologies to link the driver to many sources of data, recently announced an agreement that links wireless technologies together to deliver a more consolidated communications solution. Their new partnership with iCooper will integrate iPhones and other handheld devices with the DriverTech computer to enable the creation of an untethered LAN (local area network) to capture and automatically synchronize delivery, truck, driver and customer data wirelessly or through an in-cab docking device.

"This partnership is about combining technology and offering over-the-road, delivery and specialty fleets a truly valuable interface between DriverTech's onboard system and enterprise management applications that we develop for handheld devices," noted Jared S. Oviatt, COO at iCooper, in a recent announcement.

Wireless communications pioneer and innovator Qualcomm also sees a future where various wireless devices all communicate with one another to enable fleets to take efficiency to new levels. The company's own in-cab Mobile Computing Platform (MCP), which has both terrestrial and satellite communication options, has reached an installed base of some 33,000 active units in the two and a half years since its introduction. The brand new MCP200 will add even greater functionality, including Wi-Fi, in-cab training, Internet access and multi-mode capability.

"One technology that will get more prevalent in the future is Wi-Fi," says Norm Ellis, vp of transportation and logistics sales and service for Qualcomm Enterprise Services, a division of Qualcomm Inc. "It is cheap, even free to users, and once you get the access points up, the recurrent costs are low. Wi-Fi has tremendous download capabilities. You can even download video, something that is really cost-prohibitive with satellite, for instance."

WI-FI, SMART SENSORS & MORE

"In the next 24 to 36 months, we expect to see more in-cab video, and we are enthusiastic about what you could do with that capability," Ellis says. "Can you use it to tell the driver about a specific customer's needs and expectations, about company procedures and processes? Does it offer an opportunity to use the driver's time more efficiently?

"You could also use Wi-Fi to allow drivers access to the company intranet," he adds. "Just think about what you could do with that — driver payroll, access to human resources services or load boards. You could do all the things fleets do with driver kiosks now, except right in the cab. Wi-Fi has been used extensively in warehouses and other controlled environments, but it will gain a lot of momentum in the near future."

One of the first things Qualcomm will be offering on the new Wi-Fi capable MCP200 system is in-cab driver training from Instructional Technologies Inc. (ITI), developer of the Pro-TREAD series of interactive, multi-media driver training lessons. In the case of Pro-TREAD, the lessons will be loaded right onto the computer at the factory, according to ITI's CEO Jim Voorhees. An access code will turn the lessons on for those who want to activate the training. "Once a driver completes a lesson, the test data can be sent back to ITI via Wi-Fi 802.11 [if the truck is in a Wi-Fi hot spot] or by cellular," he notes.

In addition to the expansion of Wi-Fi for mobile applications, Ellis also sees a lot of interest in capturing and integrating data from sensors, particularly for functions like reefer monitoring and control or for the monitoring of other onboard systems such as braking. "Right now, we can monitor events like rapid decelerations, but with more sensors, right on the brakes, for instance, we could see if the brakes overheated or locked up," he says. "Sensors have generally been in silos up to this point, with no clear way to compile and integrate all that information in real time."

One way to do that, according to Ellis, is to add Wi-Fi capability right to the engine's electronic control module (ECM). "Customers have great interest in this," Ellis says. "I've been deeply involved with it myself. It may be one or two years away, but it will happen."

TOMORROW, OR THE DAY AFTER

Eventually, a day will come when all wireless devices around the world can "speak a common language." Work is going on in earnest now to develop the standard protocols that will help to make it possible. Strange as it may seem, machines may be able to communicate easily with one another long before their owners have conquered the human language barrier.

In fact, IT developers are working now to make it easier for humans to interact with their machines — by making the machines more human. The March/April issue of MIT's Technology Review offers a preview of one such effort: an Internet "do engine" that would replace search engines with a virtual personal assistant designed to help users complete tasks.

The new software is a product of a start-up company called Siri and is intended to enable users to type or speak commands in casual sentences, like asking the ‘assistant’ to find a midpriced Chinese restaurant in a particular part of town and make a reservation there. "We believe that in five years, everyone's going to have a virtual assistant to which they delegate a lot of the menial tasks," says Dag Kittlaus, Siri's cofounder and CEO.

For busier-than-ever fleet owners, this may be the ultimate in wireless technology integration, the sweetest business music of all: smart machines communicating and working together 24/7 on behalf of the business enterprise and then reaching across the digital divide to communicate with their users — in the user's very own human language.