NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 22 – As winners of the 10th edition of East African Safari Classic Rally celebrated their victory this past weekend, tele communication service providers Safaricom revealed that the pilot of their Internet of Things powered smart vehicle tracking system, was fruitful.
By installing smart sensors in two rally vehicles which continuously relayed data to a connected digital platform, Safaricom was able to prove the resilience, elasticity and omnipresence of its telematics smart tracking system which provided information on speed and location of the cars during the entire rally.
“We set out to prove the strength and the capability of our telematics platform by deploying it in the most extreme conditions and the nine-day East African Safari Classic rally covering up to 5,000km provided the best environment,” Safaricom CEO Peter Ndegwa said.
He added, “The platform was able to track every second of movement of the rally cars and give their exact locations in time with precision. The pilot is part of our journey towards becoming a technology company and providing IoT solutions such as the one we piloted is part of this commitment.”
Safaricom sponsored Raaji Bharji and his navigator Tauseef Khan receive their award from classic rally clerk of the course Raju Chager during the awarding ceremony of the East African Safari classic Rally that ran for ten days transversing eleven counties from Naivasha to Watamu. He managed to finish in 27th position after his Ford Escort mark 1 developed gear box issues.
The telematics solution was installed on Raaji Bhraji’s Ford Mark 1, 1969 and reigning African Rally Champion Carl ‘Flash’ Tundo’s Triumph TR 7.
The Telematics solution integrates with the vehicle’s on-board computer, collects information on several parameters that are accumulated and recorded at the end and start of each trip.
This provides insights into journey duration, vehicle speed, route information, fuel consumption and driver behavior.
“The smart tracking platform is built on a reliable cloud platform which is highly elastic and scalable to accommodate storage of all the data from all trips. This allows one to retrieve all information in a visual format, of any trip finished,” added Ndegwa.
The solution also allows for visualization of information relating to vehicle performance and efficiency, vehicle status and driver behavior; providing key information to better manage any fleet.