Mercedes-Benz opens its connected vehicle data to telematics company

Fleets operating Mercedes-Benz cars and vans will no longer have to retro-fit telematics devices to access all of the data generated by the connected vehicles, thanks to a landmark partnership between Mercedes-Benz and Geotab

The new agreement means the rich data from sensors all around Mercedes-Benz models will integrate seamlessly into Geotab’s open fleet management platform, called MyGeotab.

Edward Kulperger, Senior Vice President, Geotab Europe, said the ground-breaking partnership will give fleets: “Access to truly actionable insights – to help support sustainability, safety and productivity improvements. By integrating our core competencies with Mercedes-Benz connected vehicles, businesses large and small will greatly benefit by being able make better-informed, data-driven decisions to better run their fleet operations all within one common platform.”

All data open and available

Fleet managers will be able to access vehicle activity reports, trip history, GPS tracking, fuel consumption and engine system information without having to install any aftermarket hardware, on the MyGeotab platform.

Pan-European solution

The Geotab and Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services Integrated Solution is available in 20 countries in Europe, including Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain and the United Kingdom.

OEMs versus telematics companies

OEMs’ development of connected vehicles has long been seen as posing an existential threat to telematics companies, but this new collaboration presents a different future, where telematics companies become the harvesters and analysers of vehicle data from multiple manufacturers, consolidating the information from different sources and in different formats into meaningful alerts and reports for fleet managers.

New Mercedes-benz approach

Christoph Ludewig, CEO Mercedes-Benz Connected Services, said: “We recognise that we limit ourselves in the market if we see this as a closed shop. The vehicles have connectivity installed at the factory already – why not make this available to more systems and more partners which obviously could leverage the use of connectivity in fleet and could generate more data? So we decided to open up and integrate with partners like Geotab because this is for the benefit of our common customers.”

The importance of openness

Neil Cawse, CEO, Geotab, said the company had a long-standing commitment to open standards.

“Open means choice. It’s the opposite of vendor lock-in; it gives customers the ability to select what is important to them, and choice is key,” he said.

“We believe customers’ data belongs to customers and that everybody can benefit from this more open approach.”

This will involve partnering with global OEMs: “who believe in the power that data can provide to customers.”