Road to rig problems exist as long as vehicles are being tested. Many approaches and methods exist to produce test cycles for rigs or test tracks, in order to produce viable results for the generation of statements concerning such crucial aspects as durability and fuel consumption.
Modern model strategies again demand shorter–than–ever development periods, whilst meeting better–than–ever the needs and demands of special target groups. Therefore, the testing methods must also be refined, in order to gain a closer correlation to the customer's vehicle deployment.
The approach introduced here makes use of real–world customer data for obtaining a closer look at how the vehicle is used by different customer groups, in different countries.
The data is collected by small and unobtrusive dataloggers installed in customer vehicles. As these customers are using their own vehicles in everyday life, being unaware of the acquisition process, a database of real customer usage is generated.
The acquired signals are time–based, giving the maximum post–process capability for all questions concerning the product usage.
The paper submitted here presents the basic concepts, the current status and some results of the investigation currently in progress: