BUSFORCE BLOG – or how to avoid pitfalls in implementing on-board ITS

The BUSFORCE blog is intended to explain and demonstrate technical and user related best-practice related to the use of ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) systems in buses.

The IoT area (Internet of Things) has been in buses a long time. At Pilotfish we have seen that there is a lack of knowledge on how to purchase and implement systems in this area and we have decided to fill that gap by explaining and demonstrating how modern IT can and should be used and implemented in order to improve bus operations. What we see is that our customers while excellent at their daily work lack the knowledge on how to implement and operate ITS systems. This becomes a problem when they sometimes purchase costly solutions that does not fulfill the needs that they have.

The Rules for purchasing on-board ITS solutions are the following:

1. Avoid “silo solutions”, the on-board systems needs to communicate with each other
2. Implement a standardized platform in order to be able to purchase the ITS solutions from Best-of-Breed suppliers
3. Make sure the solutions are Up-datable and up-gradable
4. Make use of standardized interfaces, e.g. interfaces from ITxPT
5. Minimize the on-board computing power – make the computing in the cloud instead. It is hard and messy to change on-board hardware
6. Use standard user interfaces such as Android for multiple applications

Using these very basic rules customers such as PTA’s and PTO’s can attain a very high level of flexibility at the lowest possible cost.

Now, there are many pitfalls ahead of you still and we will try to explain how you can avoid many of these pitfalls.

Happy reading

/Tomas Gabinus