Alps Alpine Launches Location Monitoring System Linked to Connected Drive Recorders

Improving Car Rental Efficiency with Real-Time Vehicle Location.

Alps Alpine Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6770; President & CEO: Toshihiro Kuriyama) has developed a Location Monitoring System for car rental operators that uses special onboard connected drive recorders for positioning. The system contributes to efficiency improvements by allowing operators to ascertain the location of rental vehicles in real time via a location management console. With demand for drive recorders growing, pairing them with the Location Monitoring System will help to reduce initial costs borne by customers. Alpine Electronics Marketing, Inc., the Alps Alpine Group company in charge of aftermarket car audio sales, started selling the system in July 2021.

Today, more people are renting vehicles as fewer households, particularly among younger age groups, own a car. There are other reasons, too, such as avoidance of public transport due to concerns about COVID-19 transmission. Meanwhile, rental operators are grappling with vehicles frequently being returned late without notice, or not at all. Late returns upset plans for receiving vehicles, while an unreturned car requires investigation, coordination with waiting customers, and other adjustments. This affects operational efficiency.

Looking for a solution, Alps Alpine developed a special onboard device, containing both a vehicle positioning application and car navigation functions, and a location management console enabling centralized management of acquired position data. It was launched in October 2020 as a Location Monitoring System package that would help to improve the operational efficiency of car rental businesses and prevent late vehicle returns by rental users.1

During promotion of the system, many customers expressing an interest in the location monitoring function said they did not need the navigation features given their vehicles were already fitted with navigation systems. To serve this section of the market, providing a system that can be deployed easily, customer by customer, Alps Alpine added to its lineup a Location Monitoring System linking to increasingly popular drive recorders.

The special drive recorder has a front view camera and an optional rear view camera. Both cameras can continuously record full HD-quality video. Casing for the device is fastened with a special screw to prevent removal of the SD card containing video data or the power cable. This is to combat any distribution of recorded video or any interruption of video recording as a way of destroying evidence, problems actually faced by car rental operators. User privacy is also considered with a long press on a specific button being all that is required to quickly delete recorded video data prior to renting the vehicle out to the next users.

A feature to be added during 2021 will send video data from a drive recorder to a server whenever an impact with the vehicle is detected, allowing remote, real-time viewing of video on a location management console. Another aim is to ensure safety and security for car rental users. Deployment to lease operators, used car dealers and logistics businesses will also be looked into.

The system has been available since July 2021. It can be deployed with either a drive recorder or a dedicated onboard device, as selected according to conditions applicable to the vehicle.

www.alpsalpine.com

  Ask For More Information…