ZF linked bus telematics to workshop diagnostics over a CAN tunnel
The supplier connected its bus fleet platform to its workshop diagnostic software so technicians can run a full diagnostic session on a vehicle before it arrives, and said the connection is open to rival tools.
ZF showed a connection between ZF Bus Connect, its telematics and fleet-management platform for buses, and ZF [pro]Diagnostics, its workshop diagnostic software, at Automechanika in Frankfurt on September 8. The company called the link a CAN tunnel: it carries vehicle bus data from the bus to the workshop, so a technician can reach control-unit information, diagnostic trouble codes, live sensor values and diagnostic routines remotely.
ZF said this amounts to a full diagnostic session run before the vehicle reaches the workshop, rather than the fault alerts a telematics platform normally sends. The company said the same tunnel is open to third-party diagnostics providers.
Two further connections were shown at the same event. ZF [pro]Manager, which the company describes as a round-the-clock digital workshop front desk with an open interface, was integrated with Vandy, a fleet service platform ZF calls a partner and which ZF Friedrichshafen itself operates, with ZF SCALAR and Bus Connect to follow. Scan data from ZF MultiScan was connected to distributor parts catalogs so that identification, pricing and availability of a part can follow from a diagnostic reading.
ZF said its aftermarket business serves more than 2,000 fleets and 50,000 workshops, and that MultiScan covers 95 percent of the passenger-car segment on European roads. Philippe Colpron, head of ZF Aftermarket, and Benoit Dessart, head of its digital solutions business line, were quoted. ZF Friedrichshafen is not listed.
Source: ZF