CV Maintenance and Repair

Visitors to the Automechanika show, in Birmingham next month, will be able to see how the UK commercial vehicle workshops of the future will operate.

A “Workshop of the Future” area of the National Exhibition Centre (NEC) will host exhibits from the likes of Tesla, Hella, Gemco, the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), and S&B Automotive Academy of Bristol.

Hella’s Gutmann Solutions will have its latest camera and radar system calibration tool on display at the show. Technicians will need to rapidly familiarise themselves with this type of technology, as the number of vehicles fitted with ADAS (advanced driver assistance systems) continues to rise.

The latest systems for managing vehicle fault data will be a focus of Automechanika Birmingham’s “diagnostics zone”.

Truck and diesel engine manufacturers such as Daimler and Cummins can claim to be leading the way in this field already. Five years ago Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) teamed up with Zonar Systems, a Seattle-based telematics and fleet management software firm, to introduce the Virtual Technician remote fault diagnosis system for Daimler’s Detroit truck engines. This is claimed to be the first system of its kind in North America able to determine the cause of an engine’s fault code remotely while the vehicle is in operation.

Not to be outdone by a rival diesel engine manufacturer, Cummins has been following a similar route with its Connected Diagnostics system in North America. Cummins has teamed up with DriverTech, a Salt Lake City-based telematics company, to provide “immediate notification of urgent engine system faults to fleet customers”.

For more information visit www.automechanika-birmingham.com.