Its patented technology provides real-time access to the full set of floating car data on vehicle CANbus networks.
Fuel use, odometer and diagnostic data is transmitted to a secure hosted platform where it is processed, aggregated, and analysed. The technology uses a non-intrusive capacitive coupling technique which guarantees ‘read-only’ access to the vehicle, eliminating the risk of hacking.
Steve Towe, Masternaut’s UK managing director, says the result will be “a single, authoritative source for fleets and drivers” on OEM fuel economy for every vehicle.
Official government figures, he adds, are rarely indicative of real-life results and provide nothing more than basic comparisons.
Currently, the government’s VCA (Vehicle Certification Agency) runs the test in two parts.
The urban cycle is carried out in a laboratory at 20°C to 30°C on a rolling road from a cold start. The cycle consists of a series of accelerations, steady speeds, decelerations and idling.
Maximum speed is 31 mph, the average speed 12 mph, and the distance covered is 2.5 miles (4km).
The extra-urban cycle is conducted immediately following the urban cycle and consists of roughly half steady-speed driving with the remainder being accelerations, decelerations, and some idling.
The maximum speed is 75 mph, the average speed is 39 mph, and the distance covered is 4.3 miles. In total, the test covers 6.8 miles.
Masternaut’s chief technology officer Alex Rothwell (pictured) says these tests fail to include patterns for vehicle loading, terrain and different journeys.
“Our technology enables our product to collect real-time data direct from the engine management system and aggregate it by vehicle type and usage to give a much better view of vehicle performance across these categories,” he says.
“Another major concern of fleet managers and users is the security of telematics data, covering various problems observed with OBD port-based solutions.
“Masternaut’s technology avoids these problems with a patented method of ‘read-only’ interfacing with vehicle systems, which guarantees that the vehicle’s operations cannot be interrupted.”