NFC turns up in automotive industry

By Luca, Amaris Consultant

Near Field Communication enables wireless connections between two objects close to each other. These technologies are well spread in smartphone devices, especially to allow mobile payments. If this technology is well-known in the phone sector, its application in other domains is growing fast. Luca is explaining how they can be used in the automotive industry.

 

• Can you explain in few words your project?

I am working in the R&D engineering department, especially in the vehicle control systems unit, of a system provider for automotive industry. The project concerns automotive application of Near Field Communication (NFC) such as: car access system to lock and unlock doors, immobilizer system to enable engine cranking or data exchange with the vehicle (like diagnostic data or settings).

• What are the objectives of your mission?

The first goal is to build a demonstration car for the customers. Indeed, we need to show them the advantages and the drawbacks of the NFC technology used for the car accessing and the communication with regards to the CAN (Controller Area Network). The second is to prepare the RFQ (Request for Quotation) documentation for the first NFC fleet car sharing access: NFC card is used to allow you entering the booked car-sharing vehicle, instead of standard car keys; you just need to tap the reader located on the vehicle windscreen with your enabled NFC card. NFC card contains a secret code used to authenticate the user and to keep the car access as safe as per today state of the art.

• What are your role and the Amaris contribution in that project?

I am working as a Project Leader in the R&D engineering department following the two projects described above.  My main tasks are:

- Insure the performance of the different activities for each project: negotiation, planning, monitoring, controlling, reporting, escalation while respecting the project constraints (budget, effort, milestones, and human resources),

- Being leader of an international project team on the different assigned projects,

- Manage the work of the R&D team inside the international project team,

- Being responsible of our client’s customer interface while respecting the technical aspects of the projects or the products,

- Insure the customers’ technical support and the negotiation of the products requirements,

- Develop the application of the project management and the engineering processes while respecting the internal and international standards (PMI; GDPIM, ISO 15504, Automotive SPICE, CMMI SW-SE, ISO 12207, ISO 16949, TQM, ISO9000f),

- Manage the change requests, incidents and bugs of the products during the development and the production phase,

- Manage different services (planning, order and acceptance) for all the projects in the prototype shop, the test center and the external supplier/services.

• What do you get of that experience?

I’m glad to improve my electronic skills and the projects management in automotive field in an international environment.