About a year ago, ZF from Friedrichshafen confirmed the introduction of an IoT platform based on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service. The company has now announced that it is extending the digital services it offers in this way. This mainly concerns the areas of automated driving, vehicle motion control, integrated safety and e-mobility. In the longer term, ZF is pursuing its “ Vision Zero ”, by which the company means a future without road traffic accidents or emissions.

In recent months, the first applications for ZF’s IoT platform have already been created. The bus manufacturer VDL Groep from Eindhoven, Holland, for example, is using the platform for a fleet management system that it sells to its customers. At the same time, the company is also managing its own fleet with it and thus has an up-to-date overview of the cost-effectiveness of its electric and diesel vehicles. By the end of 2018, the company had already fitted the solution to over 300 electric buses.

ZF itself is using its own IoT platform for predictive maintenance for its modular TraXon transmissions. Vehicle manufacturers and fleet operators can plan vehicle maintenance with the cloud solution as of this year. ZF sees other potential applications in process automation.