Background
Since you are here, we probably don’t need to remind you that the mission of Flip The Fleet is to:
Accelerate the uptake of EVs in New Zealand through providing scientific data, helping each other and informing the debate.
This is no easy feat for a professor of sustainability, a data scientist. a software entrepreneur and a core group of wonderful supporters. But since our launch three years ago, we’ve given it a big push, engaging over 1,800 of you to sign up, collecting nearly 23,000 rows of monthly data, generating over 100 media mentions, publishing over 100 pieces of content, published a report that was the most viewed scientific paper on PrePrints.org until recent, presented on your contributions at a global EV conference in Japan and even managed to win New Zealand’s “Smarter Transport” sustainability award along the way.
Henrik presenting in Dunedin, Vasily and the EV Black Box, Donald presenting at EVS31 in Kobe, Japan and Vasily, Tanya, Henrik and Fiona at the NZ Sustainability Awards.
We also partnered with Exact IOT to trial the EV Black Box – a next-generation-data-collection project partly funded by EECA and Curious Minds. Not without hick-ups related to Nissan’s advice not to use OBD2 devices, since April 2018, the EV Black Boxes running in New Zealand have cumulatively collected over 3 millions rows of detailed CANBUS data, allowing us to publish some interesting findings on charging behaviours of Kiwis, as one example.
You – our drivers – have allowed us to achieve all of the above. And now – we hope for your buy-in and help once more with the next iteration of the EV Black Box, and Exact IOT’s partnership with CloudMade – a global leader in the design, development and delivery of artificial intelligence based solutions for the automotive industry.
About CloudMade and their EV Data Collection Program
(This section was provided by CloudMade)
CloudMade is a startup based across Ukraine, UK, France, Germany and the USA, and their mission is to create the building blocks and business logic that help the automotive industry connect the dots on every human journey. They are aiming to achieve this by linking intelligent apps with intelligent vehicles, and over the last 10 years their focus has been on the design, development and delivery of artificial intelligence based technology for the automotive and mobility use cases.
Since August 2019, Natalia Petrishina (Data Collection Product Manager and Product Support Manager, pictured above) and the Data Science team at CloudMade has been working with Exact IOT on improving the EV Black box to enable it to collect additional streams of data from each trip. This work aims to study people’s driving patterns and how they correlate with the car’s usage and performance. The collected data will be used by CloudMade to make the EV itself more efficient and alleviate some of the concerns EV owners most often have, such as:
- Running out of charge
- Poorly performing battery
- Driving range issues
- Finding a charging station
- Lack of info about the duration of charging
CloudMade believes that the collected data will go a long way towards developing smart technologies that will enable things like range optimization, preconditioned reminders and smart charging. These and many other features that can reduce range anxiety, increase battery efficiency and most importantly – take one more step towards the mainstream adoption of electric vehicles.
If you wish to learn even more, click the button below to download detailed PDF overview:
CloudMade – Overview of EV solutions
CloudMade’s EV Data Collection Program is an exciting and innovative project, and now you have a chance to be a part of it!
What we think
Since CloudMade’s vision around collecting data is closely shared by our team at Flip The Fleet, we jumped at the opportunity to help fine-tune this exciting new technology by helping find some willing participants in New Zealand. You don’t need to be contributing data to Flip The Fleet to take part in the CloudMade program, but if you are – the Flip The Fleet portal will automatically pull the last bit of monthly data from CloudMade for your Leaf, meaning, your battery data will be automatically populated for you in your Flip The Fleet dashboard at the end of each month while you take part! Neat, huh?
How you can take part
CloudMade plans to roll out one hundred EV Black Boxes in New Zealand over the next few months. The criteria to take part is pretty simple:
- You must be regularly-ish driving a Gen 1.1, 1.2 or 1.3 Nissan Leaf.
- The program runs for 6 months, with possible continuation depending on how it goes.
- You’ll need to install an app onto the smartphone you usually carry with you while driving the car.
- If you take part, an EV Black Box will be sent out to you for you to install into your car. The installation process only takes a few minutes, and you only need a Phillips screwdriver to do the installation. At the end of the program, you’ll need to send the EV Black Box back in a provided pre-paid return box.
Here’s a short 6-minute video about the installation process – please take some time to review it to make sure you’ll comfortable with it:
Sounds great! I’d like to take part. How do I sign up?
It couldn’t be easier. Simply do one of these three things, and we’ll take it from here:
1. Click on dima@flipthefleet.org to generate a new email on your device and click “Send”, or….
2. If you wish to go through the full sign up process right away, please click here to be taken to the full sign up form, or….
3. Add your email to the form below and click the “Sign me up!” button. Easy!
I think I’m interested, but I’d like to find out more first…
Of-course! No problems. Please email dima@flipthefleet.org or natalia@cloudmade.com and we’ll provide you with all the info you need to make a decision.