Invers Announces Hardware-Free Connectivity

Fleet managers for mobility service providers such as carsharing operators, rental companies, or subscription providers are looking for tools to automate fleet operations and manage fleets with software tools to improve efficiency and profitability. To build such software-defined fleets, operators require reliable access to data from a variety of vehicle brands and models in their fleet. Most vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) are starting to provide such data through factory-fitted telematics, accessible via their specific OEM APIs. The challenge for mobility service providers is to then integrate and maintain a multitude of different OEM APIs for various vehicle types and brands in their fleets. 

OEM Integrations and INVERS OneAPI relieve providers from this challenge by integrating the OEM APIs, then harmonizing and normalizing the data streams so that developers can work with data without worrying about different formats. The solution currently connects to the APIs of Mercedes Benz, BMW, Mini, Chrysler, Peugeot, Citroen, DS, Vauxhall, Opel, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Jeep and Ford as well as moped, kick-scooter and e-bike brands such as Segway, NIU and Okai. It includes data points such as odometer, location information, and fuel or battery level from these different sources and provides them through just one single interface: INVERS OneAPI. The operators’ developers can then more easily use the data in software for vehicle sharing or other fleet management applications. 

“Following our ambition to make any vehicle shareable, we believe software-defined fleets and fleet automation enable mobility service providers to operate shared fleets more profitably, more efficiently and with the best user experience,” said Alexander Kirn, CEO of Invers. “As developer resources are rare and time to market is key, our solution allows operators to integrate any vehicle into their fleet quickly and flexibly with retrofitted, sharing-dedicated hardware like CloudBoxx, and now also factory-fitted solutions via OEM Integrations. Adding a software-based, API-centric approach to our proven hardware and software sharing capabilities is just a logical step in our journey toward a comprehensive vehicle-as-a-service platform and a data standard for software-defined fleets.”  

The new product builds on experiences the team at Invers gained during the "Shared Mobility API Aggregator" (SMAA) project that ran from 2017 to 2020 and was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure as part of the mFUND innovation initiative. The specification of a generic and vehicle-agnostic REST API based on the requirements of shared mobility operators should remove the need to use multiple vehicle telematics communication interfaces, and thus enable operators of shared mobility services to choose vehicles more flexibly.

Originally posted on Auto Rental News