Mack Automates Truck Software Updates, Adds Parameter Power – Maintenance

Mack is making over-the-air software updates and parameter changes easier and more accessible to customers using its Mack Connect service, while data from more than 200,000 connected trucks on the road is helping Mack give fleet managers new insights into their operations.

Mack announced new automated software deployment through AutoSend and Self-Service Parameter Updates to make it easier for customers to keep their fleets fully optimized through Mack’s Over The Air service.

The announcement comes as Mack prepares for the April launch of its new flagship on-highway truck.

Making Over the Air Truck Software Updates as Simple as Smartphone Updates

What happens when you don’t keep the software on your computer or smartphone updated? Performance suffers. It may get slower, get buggy, or not support the latest apps. 

The same can happen with today’s sophisticated trucks. Mack’s Over the Air updates have allowed customers to update their trucks’ software with a call to the Mack Uptime Center, where an agent guides the customer through the update on the trucks that need it. 

Which was great, but customers wanted more.

“The number one thing we heard from [customers] was, ‘This gets really complicated,’” explained Nicole Portello, Mack senior vice president and chief digital officer, in a call with trucking reporters.

“’I have a big fleet here. I have a lot of VINs. It’s a lot for me to manage. These five trucks have the latest software update. These five don’t. These ones are in the process of updating. Can you just make sure my trucks are updated?’”

And that’s what the new AutoSend does. It automatically pushes out software updates to the trucks that need it, without fleet managers having to track which trucks need updates or getting a call center agent involved.

How Mack’s New AutoSend Updates Work

A notice pops up on the Driver Display Activation screen in the cab, the driver approves the update, and it’s completed in 30 minutes or less.

And like a cell phone, you can push off the update if it’s not a good time to do it, with the system popping up additional reminders until 28 days from the initial update notice.

By the end of the first quarter, AutoSend will become standard for customers with trucks equipped with Mack engines and Driver Display Activation. (There will be an opt out option.)

Available through Mack’s Integrated Uptime subscription service, AutoSend comes as part of the Mack Over The Air service at no additional charge. (Driver Display Activation capability comes standard on most Mack-powered trucks built after Nov. 30, 2020.)

Trucks with updated software have 22% less unplanned downtime, Portello said. 

“If you don’t have the latest software, sometimes that will throw codes that aren’t real codes because it doesn’t have the latest software,” explained Randall. “That puts the driver down until they figure it out.”

Regardless of fleet size, streamlining the update process has significant advantages, as it doesn’t require a truck to be taken out of service.

Self-Service Parameter Updates

Mack is introducing Self-Service Parameter Updates through its Mack Connect customer portal in the second quarter.

This will allow fleet managers to create and deploy custom parameter profiles directly from Mack Connect. Fleet managers will be able to manage critical vehicle settings such as road speed limits and idle shutdown parameters without needing assistance from Mack’s Uptime Center.

Mack Connect was launched for customers at the end of 2023, Portello said, and since then, customers have told Mack they wanted the ability to change the parameter settings on their own.

Examples of parameters fleets might want to change remotely include:

• Switching back and forth from mph to kph when crossing the Canadian border.
• Changing max road speed.
• Changing parameters for winter operations.

It also will alert fleet managers if those parameters have been changed independently, as sometimes happens when drivers want a higher road speed, for instance, and are able to get someone working on the truck to change that parameter for them.

“The future of fleet management lies in connected vehicle technology, and these new features represent a significant step forward in that evolution,” said Portello.

“With AutoSend and Self-Service Parameter Updates, we’re giving customers unprecedented control over their vehicles’ performance while ensuring they have immediate access to critical software improvements. This is about delivering technology that works as hard as our customers do.”

How Mack’s Data is Changing Fleet Insights

All the data coming from those 200,000-plus connected Mack trucks is giving new insights and actionable data to customers, including predictive maintenance.

“We are looking at the predictive piece of it using the data, and we have a lot of machine learning that goes into the data today,” Portello said.

“We get tons of fault codes that come off of the truck, so we’re really mining for patterns… looking for ways to predict future faults, as well as starting to predict when things may fail.”

With artificial intelligence built into its service contracts, she said, Mack can use AI to evaluate the data coming from the telematics to fine-tune maintenance intervals.

“We’re using AI to determine the best optimized schedule,” Portello said.

On top of that, Randall said, digging into the data allows for benchmarking your fleet against similar ones – and potentially getting advice from Mack on ways to potentially improve.

“We’ve made no secret of our desire to continue to expand into service contracts with our customers and offer subscription services to pay by the mile, pay by the hour,” he explained. 

“But even in real time today, we’re able to take those connected trucks and work with our customers and say, ‘We see that in these groups of trucks that run similar terrain, similar miles [to your fleet], with this gear ratio or with this horsepower and torque, get X percent better fuel economy. Maybe we want to try it on your fleet as well.’

“So we’re using it today to try to provide actionable data to our existing customers.”

Giving Heavy Duty Trucking Customers Actionable Data

It’s a far cry, Randall said, from the days when a fleet manager would have a huge stack of computer printouts on the corner of his desk with data on the fleet’s trucks.

“You could find little tidbits,” he says, but it was time-consuming.

“What’s fantastic about what we’ve got through Mack Connect is that we can pinpoint the reports and the data that’s important and specific to that customer, provide them specific reports to that, and give them actionable data that they can [take action] on the next day based on what they see. And that’s just going to continue to continue to grow for us to be able to provide that service.”