Toyota Connected Targets at Least 99.99% Availability With MongoDB Assistance

In a life-and-death situation, every second counts. That’s why Toyota Connected North America (Toyota Connected), an independent Toyota company focused on advanced software engineering, AI, machine learning, and data science in the mobility space, depends on quick telemetry and virtually no downtime for the services it provides through Toyota’s Safety Connect suite. This suite can connect users to emergency services at the push of a button or even by itself with Automatic Collision Notifications. When the company needed a reliable, resilient database solution to support this platform, it turned to MongoDB.

Toyota Connected uses telemetry-based technology to power connectivity solutions like Safety Connect in more than 9 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles in North America. These services are built on a responsive, event-driven architecture called the telematics service platform (TSP). The TSP needs to be resilient so that crucial services like Safety Connect can operate even if a part of the system is temporarily down.

“Every message matters, and in an emergency, there’s no time to waste,” said Kevin O’Dell, Director of Engineering at Toyota Connected. “We need redundancy built on redundancy, from the vehicles to our full architecture stack, all the way down to the data level.”

After Toyota Connected experienced reliability issues with its legacy database solution, the company decided to migrate to Amazon Web Services (AWS) and MongoDB Atlas, an integrated suite of data services centered around a cloud database designed to accelerate and simplify building with data. MongoDB is an active partner in the AWS ISV Workload Migration Program, where it is committed to streamlining the migration process for customers who transfer self-managed workloads to the cloud. In 2022, amid a four-month migration to AWS, Toyota Connected’s migration to MongoDB Atlas was one of the simplest pieces to manage, according to O’Dell.

“Having MongoDB as a cross-cloud platform was very beneficial to us,” said O’Dell. “All we had to do was click a button, and our data was there.”

Toyota Connected’s TSP now uses several AWS microservices with 20 MongoDB Atlas databases underneath. When Toyota or Lexus vehicle sensors detect a crash, or a customer uses the SOS button, the vehicle can automatically send telemetry and geolocation data to one of Toyota Connected’s North America-based safety agents. Using MongoDB Atlas, all that data is processed and presented to safety agents in as little as three seconds, which helps them quickly serve customers in need. Speed like this is critical in emergency situations — especially in rural areas where lifesaving care might take longer to arrive.

“Using MongoDB, the data processing is out of sight, out of mind,” said O’Dell. “The service is at the heart of all the data we need, and it simply does what it needs to do for us.”

Toyota Connected quickly adapted to the new platform. In fact, because it’s using MongoDB Atlas, the company doesn’t need to maintain a dedicated database team. “MongoDB Atlas is a developer-rich platform,” said O’Dell. “It’s self-explanatory, so any one of our developers can create new databases, collections, and services without figuring out the data model. They love that they can simply and quickly get work done.”

Kevin O’Dell, Director of Engineering

Most importantly, migrating to AWS and MongoDB helped Toyota Connected achieve the reliability it needed. The safety service it provides to its customers has attained 99.99% availability and aims for that number monthly, according to Toyota Connected’s internal measurements. Plus, with AWS and MongoDB multiregional support, Toyota Connected can perform maintenance and upgrades without downtime.

“We chose MongoDB for the resiliency and uptime that it could provide us,” said O’Dell. “It gave us the reliability and the availability that we need to be there for our customers at all times.”

With this kind of availability, Toyota Connected can better provide its full suite of services — from roadside assistance to Automatic Collision Notification to stolen vehicle location. Using the platform, Toyota Connected safety agents have even helped locate vehicles which have been reported missing.

“It’s an incredible, rewarding space to be in,” said O’Dell. “Law enforcement officers have told our agents, ‘Hey, you just saved a life today,’ and that means everything to us.”

Since migrating to MongoDB Atlas, Toyota Connected has increased efficiencies in everything from its infrastructure to its call center. What’s more, although the Toyota Safety Connect service suite began as a subscription service with a one-year trial for Toyota customers, the company has now reduced costs to the point that it can expand the trial period to up to 10 years, or about the average life of a vehicle.

“We’re really proud of this because our most important goals are to generate social good and to keep our customers safe,” said O’Dell.

“We use MongoDB as the core database for our services,” O’Dell continued, “so any new innovative idea or new service we build, we automatically say, ‘We’re going to use MongoDB as the core platform,’ knowing that it’s going to give us the reliability and the scalability that we’re going to need.”

Kevin O’Dell, Director of Engineering

In a vehicle, hundreds of sensors can deliver important data about occupants, seat belts, fuel levels, and even air quality. But, as vehicles get smarter, Toyota Connected expects that cars will soon have the capability to send even more data in emergency situations. With its safety data already in MongoDB Atlas, Toyota Connected is turning its attention to adding AI capabilities to continue advancing its services.

“Safety is something that we’re very passionate about,” said O’Dell. “Every change that we make to our services on MongoDB is designed to improve the experience for our customers. Knowing that we’re helping drives us forward.”