Investigating dropped calls in a production infotainment system
The challenge
A global automotive manufacturer was receiving reports of calls dropping on a recently launched vehicle infotainment system. The production software did not provide access to the programmable interfaces used during development. The team therefore needed a way to test the production system exactly as customers would use it.
Our approach
Nextgen deployed an automated test system that operated the infotainment system through the touchscreen, connected mobile phones and conducted long-duration call tests. Twenty mobile phones across multiple networks were tested continuously for five days. The automated journeys included pairing and reconnecting phones, making calls of different durations and monitoring connection stability.
All activity was synchronised with Bluetooth traces,
infotainment logs, phone logs and audio measurements.
The finding
The results showed that phones from one manufacturer were significantly more likely to experience dropped calls. Bluetooth data captured during the automated user journeys revealed a timing mismatch between the phone and the vehicle head unit. The evidence helped both companies identify the root cause and deliver a software update that resolved the issue.
We do not just test touchscreens.
We use them to test the complete infotainment experience.
Customers experience infotainment as a complete journey. They wake the system, connect their phone, make a call, play music, use navigation and adjust settings. Everything works together or the experience fails.
Software tools and APIs are useful during development but they do not always reflect how the finished system behaves in the real world. Nextgen uses physical automation to operate the infotainment system through the same touchscreen, buttons and controls that customers use every day.
A collaborative robot interacts with the display while vision technology understands what is shown on the screen. Connected devices are controlled as part of the same journey. The result is a test that sees and operates the system exactly as the customer does.
Find out more about how Nextgen’s automated testing platform ATAMConnect and cobot vison system can help accelerate interoperability testing. Contact us.
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