Diagnostics 28 www.aftermarketonline.net MARCH 2025 Decoding the world of remote diagnostics Neil Hilton, technical sales director for Core Diagnostics, on how choosing the right remote diagnostics partner maximises the benefits of the technology Less than 15 years ago, the idea of being able to carry out repairs on a vehicle that could be in another town, country — or even on another continent — might have seemed farfetched. However, in today’s superconnected world, remote diagnostics brings enormous benefits to the service and repair sector. As we know, there’s been a massive evolution in the automotive industry in the last 20 years with the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated electronic vehicle systems. Workshops typically have to invest in an array of diagnostic tools to ensure wide coverage of the vehicle parc, as well as specialist ADAS calibration equipment, and of course they have to know how to use it. Even then, there are many coding and programming procedures on common vehicle brands that can only be carried out with the OE diagnostic tool, for example ECU Flash Updates that a manufacturer has released to resolve issues or a Mercedes headlamp that requires coding to the vehicle. Remote diagnostics can be the perfect solution, as it allows a wide range of diagnostic, coding or programming tasks — and even ADAS calibrations — to be outsourced. But rather than waiting for a mobile auto electrician or third-party repairer to turn up in a van, workshops who use remote diagnostics can simply plug the remote interface in to the vehicle’s OBD port, allowing remote repairs to be carried out by a qualified technician based at our technical centre. What’s more, with our Core Remote Ultimate, which is supplied with a Netgear high speed mobile Wi-Fi router, the remote interface doesn’t even need to be connected to the workshop’s Wi-Fi connection, also making it ideal for roadside repairs or dynamic ADAS calibrations. However, while remote repair technology can offer huge benefits, there are wide variations in the service levels and capabilities of many remote diagnostic providers. While most remote diagnostics companies use a similar remote interface to be able to establish a remote connection with the vehicle, that’s often where the similarities end. So, it’s advisable to do your research and ask the right questions when choosing a remote diagnostics provider. Smaller remote diagnostic providers may only have one or two in-house support technicians, although some do not have any. Either they will quickly reach the limit of the number of jobs that they can work on simultaneously or they will outsource some or all of the jobs they receive to a larger technical centre like ours. This means that their customers will frequently face long waiting times or support queues, which can be very frustrating for the workshops as it will slow down their workflow. Server capacity is the other side of the same coin. Remote programming requires a large amount of server capacity and significant extra bandwidth is needed to be able to work on multiple vehicles at the same time. The IT hardware required to provide the capacity to do this is a costly investment that few remote diagnostic companies can afford to make. The result is the same — either more work has to be outsourced, or the customer has to wait in a support queue. This is why Core Diagnostics has a large inhouse team of highly-trained remote technicians. They are the only ones in the UK with the Institute of the Motor Industry’s remote technician accreditation, a course we developed in partnership continued on page 30
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