At Scionova, we strive to make the world a little bit better. But what does that mean in practice? To give you an insight into our daily work, we have performed an interview series asking our consultants about their experiences within IoT.
What does cloud developer Daniel Andersson work with in his current assignment? Continue your read and find out!
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Daniel, tell us about your current role and what tasks you work with.
– I’m currently in an assignment where I work with IT solutions for different vehicle companies (OEMs), in order to connect their vehicles to the cloud or other wireless communication. The project I’m working with now, is to create a service where the cars’ devices and software are being updated automatically through the cloud. As it is now, the vehicles have to go to the workshop for software updates, which demands a lot of time and resources.
You could call my role “DevOps”. I work a lot with quality, testing for solutions, and also development for the service itself.
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What language and platform do you work in?
– Our main language is Java, but we also write some things in JavaScript. The platform we build in is AWS (Amazon Web Services), where a completely Serverless approach is taken. That allows us to write code and upload it, and it basically takes care of itself as AWS is maintaining all the underlying servers.
What value is created through your work, and for whom?
– For my client’s customers, the biggest value is that they save both time and resources on eliminating the need to update the vehicles on site. This also benefits the end user, who is the one driving the vehicle, not having to go to the workshop. But it also ensures that they always have the newest and most secure software.
What is the overall problem that engineers try to solve within this field?
– The important part when working with cars, is to ensure that you have the right code when updating their computers. That’s where a lot of the problems lie, it has to be safe. If something would go wrong with the software, people could get hurt. Both in- and outside the car.
What could happen if a car receives a faulty software, and how do you prevent that?
– In this case, computers control the vehicle entirely. It steers the wheels, the engine and so on. A typical problem is therefore the fear of the car steering in a way you haven’t told it to, which creates insecurities since it could cause disasters. We ensure that this doesn’t happen by always using secure communications, which includes making sure that we’re talking to the right server, and that all communication and storage are encrypted. Another important measure is to ensure a high code quality by thoroughly testing the solution.
Working within this field, you have to think about all possible aspects regarding safety. Safety is important generally when working with computers, but especially when it comes to vehicles.
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Have you missed part 1 or 2 of this series? Click here and here to get to them!
Want to know more about the work of our consultants? Stay tuned for coming posts in the interview series! Follow us on social media to get notified.
