First-hand: use of Mercedes-Benz vehicle data for own telematics offers

When it comes to collecting and processing vehicle data for its own products, Echoes opted for the forward-looking path of OEM connectivity at a very early stage. The vehicle data provider states that installing a third-party device was sometimes a considerable effort for its customers. Mathieu Chènebit, CEO & Founder of Echoes: "Many customers are afraid of additional hardware and installation costs, are unsure about the warranty of their vehicles when it comes to retrofit solutions, or complain about the limited amount of vehicle data in comparison." The ability to access real OEM data with just a few clicks is a winning factor for many fleet operators when it comes to fleet management, including sustainability and fleet electrification.

In close partnership, Echoes and Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services meet the growing requirements of fleet operators who want to use and manage their vehicle data immediately – and thus deliberately avoid the subsequent installation of restrictive telematics hardware. Based on an interface solution (API) or via dashboard (product "CarFleet"), Echoes customers can retrieve various vehicle data for their Mercedes-Benz vehicles in real time: mileage, fuel consumption and charging data, location data, condition data and much more. Echoes, in turn, obtains the comprehensive as well as far-reaching data from Mercedes-Benz vehicles directly and reliably via connect your business API on behalf of its customers.

The connect your business API not only convinces telematics and mobility providers, but also technology experts. The Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services API was awarded first place in the "Automotive APIs" category of the "2022 API Awards". The data product was crowned in San Jose, California, by an international advisory board of 42 members as part of API World 2022, the world's largest API and microservices event.

In February 2023, the connect your business API also has won a 2023 DEVIES Award as best innovation in "Services: Strategic & Technical". The 2023 DEVIES Awards recognize outstanding design, engineering, and innovation in developer technology, presented at DeveloperWeek 2023, the world's largest developer and engineering conference & expo. Jonathan Pasky, Producer of DeveloperWeek and the 2023 DEVIES Awards: "Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services' win is evidence of their leading role in the growth and innovation in the software industry."

Mathieu Chènebit, CEO & founder of Echoes, can only confirm the jury's judgements and has already been using the API with his company since 2020: "It is very important to us to build a trustworthy and successful partnership with Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services, and that is why we decided to integrate the connect your business interface as soon as possible. The feedback has been 100 % positive: our customers can add their vehicles to our fleet management portal with two clicks and receive the data a few seconds later. This, of course, excites our customers."

Heiko Schilling, Head of Sales & Marketing at Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services: "Honors like the 2022 API Award make us very happy and confirm us in our work. But the greatest award for us is that our partners actively use our product and that new data-based products and solutions are created as a result. A close collaboration that holds great growth potential on both sides."

Data protection surrounding the use of the connect your business API is always given the highest priority. The GDPR-compliant processing of vehicle data is ensured by state-of-the-art control mechanisms and measures. The fleet customer always retains control over his own data.

At the same time, Echoes is impressing the customers with the most reliable provision of data. "We have connected many thousands of vehicles in a wide variety of markets without a single issue. Since the data is provided by the OEM, the data points are reliable and perfectly match the market requirements," explains Echoes founder Mathieu Chènebit. "We are very proud to have Mercedes-Benz Connectivity Services in the Echoes Neutral Server pool of integrated solutions."