Telematics Interview Questions | Freshers & Experienced

Telematics is a technology that monitors the information of an individual vehicle or an entire fleet. It is an interdisciplinary field that composes vehicular technologies, electrical engineering, computer science, and telecommunications. It gathers the data like engine diagnostics, driver behavior, vehicle activity. The data is then visualized on software that helps the operator in managing their resources

A telematics device is installed into your vehicle which is often provided by your insurance company. It collects the data of your driving behavior like how fast you drive, the distance you drive, and how fast you brake. This program can help you in getting a premium discount only if your data shows that you are a safe and cautious driver. It can also help in describing features such as traffic, live weather, and parking information.

Various applications are:

• Vehicle tracking: Vehicle tracking is a method in which a vehicle can be monitored. Its location, status, movements, and behavior can be checked. It is done with the help of technology such as GPS, an electronic device installed in each vehicle, and software. The information is visualized into a computer with the help of the software.
• Trailer tracking: Trailer tracking is a technology used to track the movement and position of an articulated vehicle trailer unit. This is achieved with the help of a location unit fitted to the trailer that constantly gives the location via a mobile network or satellite.
• Cold store freight logistics: Recently, cold store freight trailers are installing telematics technology in the cargo container to track the record of temperature. It helps in recording audit trails and alarms for business purposes. As these cold stores are used to deliver the fresh food over a distance so the sensors (with RFID technology) are valuable to make sure that temperature throughout the cargo remains within parameters.
• Fleet management: Fleet management as the name suggests is the management of a company’s vehicle fleet. It is the management of ships and vehicles such as vans, cars, trucks, etc. It is very useful as it reduces the risks associated with vehicle investment. Moreover, it improves efficiency, productivity, and also lowers the overall transportation costs.
• Satellite navigation: In-vehicle telematics, Satellite navigation is a technology that helps the driver to locate the position. It is very useful for the drivers as they can route, plan, and navigate a journey just by checking their screen without worrying about the direction.

• Efficiency: It helps the drivers from delaying. Even adding a few minutes to a driver's daily HOS (hours of service) can increase fleet utilization.
• Safety: With the vehicle connected, it is easy to analyze how fast they are driven and the behavior of the driven. With these, it is possible to take safety measurements.
• Increase Job satisfaction: Drivers have more control over their daily routines because of electronic logs and it ultimately contributes to job satisfaction. With the advanced technology, drivers can choose a time and place for the meeting whatever is convenient for them.
• Reduce operating cost: Even a slight saving of time across a fleet can lead to huge fuel savings. Connection through tablets can help in conveying the information regarding the bad route, heavy traffic, and other major problems.
• Optimize Vehicle Performance: Vehicle sensors can give alerts about engine problems or other issues when a vehicle is out of service. The cache of vehicles can also help in replacement planning.
• Schedule Alerts for Repair Centers: Wired vehicles can analyze the situation of a vehicle and can contact the repair center with proactive schedule alerts. It helps the drivers and managers to keep on track instead of the failure in between.
• Retain/attract driver: It also helps the driver to connect with their manager who feels disconnected by allowing them to attend the meeting virtually.
• Enhance security: Connecting both company and personal data with mobile can leverage many secure data applications. With this technology, it is possible for the drivers to enjoy the music or other sources during the downtime.

The top commercial Telematics companies are:
AirIQ, Fleetmatics Group, MiX Telematics, TomTom, Trimble, Actsoft, Ctrack, FleetBoard, KORE, Masternaut.

Telematics box also known as telematics box is an electronic device installed in a vehicle to analyze the driver’s performance. It is a part of the insurance policy.

• Framing: Packets are collected from the network layer by the Data-link layer and encapsulated into frames. These frames are then sent to hardware bit-by-bit. At the receiver end, a data-link layer picks these and converts them to frames.
• Addressing: Hardware address should be unique on the link which is encoded into hardware during the manufacturing.
• Synchronization: After the data frames are sent, it is crucial for both the machines to synchronize so that there is no problem in transformation.
• Error Control: It may be possible that signals may encounter problems in transition and the bits are flipped. These errors are detected and resolved into actual data bits. Moreover, it also reports the error to the sender
• Flow Control: Stations on the same link may vary in speed and capacity. It is the duty of the data-link layer to ensure the flow control that enables both machines to exchange data at the same speed
• Multi-Access: The data may collide when the host tries to transfer it on the shared link. Data-link layer provides CSMA/CD or similar mechanism which allow accessing a shared media among multiple systems.

A communication system is a system used to transmit information between two points. It is the process of transmission and reception of information. Elements included in communication are Transmitter, channel or medium, and receiver. It comprises many systems like transmission systems, telecommunications networks, tributary stations, relay stations, and terminal equipment to form an integrated system for better communication.

A sliding window is a technique used to send the various frames at a time. It controls the data packets between two points for the gradual and reliable delivery of data frames. Slide window is also used in the transmission control protocol. This method is also known as windowing.

Ethernet is a technology that connects the computer together in LAN (Local area network). Since the 1990s, this method has been the most accepted method to connect multiple computers together. The principle that lies behind this technology is that multiple computers have access to it and can share the data at any time.

Sometimes, two computers share the data simultaneously which causes the collision and as a result, both computers stop sharing. These computers then wait for a while before trying again. A special protocol is used in this situation to deal with such problems which are known as Carrier sense multiple access with collision detect (CSMA/CD).

Dynamic Memory allocation is a method by which memory is allocated to a variable during run time.