The highlight of the Omnitracs Outlook conference, held at the Hilton Anatole Jan. 31-Feb. 2, was a new Intelligent Vehicle Gateway (IVG), says Aaron Huff, Senior Editor of Overdrive sister site CCJ.
This new Windows mobile platform expands on the capabilities of the Mobile Computing Platform line that Omnitracs inherited from Qualcomm. It also represents a single, and unified, development path for future applications both inside and outside the vehicle.
The IVG is a tethered, tablet-style device with an 8-inch touchscreen display and a quad-core processor that gives it significantly faster response time than the MCP, at a fraction of the cost.
A future capability of the IVG, planned for release in early 2017, is over-the-air engine programming. Omnitracs, in partnership with engine manufacturer Cummins, will be able to send remote updates to engines. When an update is available, Cummins will communicate with the IVG platform in a vehicle for verification before sending a file. Once IVG receives the file, it will interact with the driver to manage the install when the vehicle is not in motion.
Cummins plans to make over-the-air updates available on its 2017 model year engines, says Mark Alsbrook, senior product manager of Omnitracs. “We are hoping to have this launched the day that Cummins announces it,” he says, predicting that the launch date will be in January 2017.
To find out more about Omnitracs’ new IVG, read Huff’s full report here.
