The autonomous vehicles’ race has been hot for a while. However, there is one field, less heard of, whose companies collect data that brings tremendous value and paves the way for Autonomous Vehicles — the fleet management technology industry.

I will focus on three key components already covered within fleet management, and explain how they contribute to the future of AVs.

1 — Maintenance

For Autonomous vehicles, remote maintenance tools are crucial to enhance performance and safety on the road when there’s no driver to watch over the car.

Refueling/Recharging (In the AV case — battery usage). For AVs, it’s essential to know how to plan the upcoming trips appropriately. The system knows, for example, that from Monday to Friday, you commute to the workplace, the same as human fleet managers know how to load balance their fleet based on different days of the week. Therefore, it can schedule battery charging according to actual and planned usage. Moreover, the system is equipped with GPS analytics and can identify map locations in which charging would occur at the right timing. As in current fleet management, this is all about maximizing the car’s utility to the owner, not necessarily maximizing road time.

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