Introducing Advanced Engineering / Proof of Concept Team
(Please accept our apology for providing only English version at this time)
Hi everyone, I am Radim, and I would like to introduce you to another team at Nakameguro office - Advanced Engineering (AE) and Proof of Concept (PoC) Team.
Introduction
The official name of our team is Advanced Service Development Group; however, AE and PoC better describes the role of our team. In one sentence, the role of our team is to create a Proof of Concept from an initial idea.
In our definition, a Proof of Concept is a demonstration that illustrates the main use case and clarify that a technology can achieve the desired outcome. It is a technical PoC.
What We Do
Vehicle development process has defined phases, and one of the phases is called Advanced Engineering (AE). AE phase serves to identify and develop key technologies for future products and services. AE encompasses many key vehicle components and systems such as chassis, power train, connected car services and others. Naturally various teams work on those components, and our team, together with others, works on connected car services that often utilize both on-board and off-board parts (https://note.com/nissan_nkm_blog/n/n6675c094ff36).
Main part of this work is to:
ideate/brainstorm services that our customers would like to enjoy
identify the necessary technologies and enablers that will enable such services
develop PoCs
identify technical gaps
create technical requirements
The biggest part of this work is to develop PoCs that demonstrate initial service ideas as tangible demonstrations and demonstrating the PoCs to stakeholders within the company. Some of the PoCs that our team had worked on led to pilots such as Charging+ or to products such as interacting with Nissan vehicles through Amazon Alexa or Driver’s Guide. Others PoCs have reminded as concepts for inspiration.
How We Work
Projects often adapts Scrum style-like workflow - 2 weeks sprint consisting of sprint planning, review, retrospective and daily stand-up meeting at 10 o'clock. Depending on a project, we work with other developers, product owners and designers. Our team, as every team at Nakameguro, has a flex-time working style, with casual dress code.
Team Skills and Tools
Important trait of a PoC engineer is to have broad technical skills and knowledge and eager to deep dive into particular technology when necessary for a project. The technologies and tools are not much different to other teams at Nakameguro.
Programming Languages:
- Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python
Libraries:
- Android Jetpack, React, React Native, vue.js
Cloud:
- GCP, Azure
Version Control:
- GitHub
CI/CD :
- GitHub Actions
HW:
- various HW development boards and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) benches
Platforms/OS:
- Android and iPhone smartphones, Android Auto, Apple CarPlay,
Android Automotive, wearables
Typical Project
There are two main ways of how a project starts - either as 1) a request to confirm technical feasibility for a planned product, service or feature, or by 2) brainstorming, creating ideas and selecting some to develop as a PoC.
A project that starts as a request to confirm technical feasibility has often given constrains - for example system and enablers that needs to be used. This often means to not only confirm technical feasibility but sometimes also identify methods to provide a planned product, service or feature. The duration of this kind of project is between 1 and 2 months.
On the other hand, a project that starts from brainstorming allows us to propose future product, explore new necessary technologies and provide additional value to enablers and components that are going to be integrated in future vehicles. One of the most important part of such a project is to identify the necessary enablers and components that needs to be integrated into the vehicle. The duration of such project is often 6-12 months.
Use Case - Alexa Skill
One of the PoC projects that our team started and that became a product is Alexa Skill for Nissan Leaf vehicles. Our team has worked on the initial concept and integration with a Leaf vehicle that is used for development.
The initial idea came up when Amazon Alexa was becoming popular at some countries, and also just a few months before Amazon announced its plan to introduce Amazon Alexa service to Japan (we were not aware of Amazon's plan). Once the team decided that it was a good idea to explore as a PoC - the necessary enablers for this PoC were identified: Nissan Leaf vehicle, Nissan backend and an Amazon Alexa Echo speaker. Also initial set of voice commands was defined. The development of the PoC took few months, including not only development, but also working with other teams for integrating with Nissan backend. The final PoC was demonstrated to stakeholders and was handed over to Product Owner team that worked with business, marketing and production teams to bring this service to Nissan customers.
Future
We are excited about the new technologies coming to Nissan vehicles and about other user touchpoints that create seamless connected car experience.
If you would like to know more or even be part of creating future products and services for Nissan customers, please feel free to contact me or anyone at this Nakameguro blog.