It’s no secret we work with amazing companies (partners!), so we want to show them off – not only because it’s a great opportunity for you to check out their open positions, but also because they’re changing the game in their industries and helping develop our society in so many ways. One of our amazing partners is tb.lx, a tech startup from Lisbon that develops sustainable transportation solutions for Daimler Trucks & Buses. We invited them to take the spotlight today and tell you all about who they are and what they’re doing — special thanks to Clément de Coligny, Technical Product Owner at tb.lx, who accepted our challenge. tb.lx taking over now!
The teams are working on services that will enable the transition towards electric mobility, improving sustainability, efficiency and costs in the large vehicle industry.
E-mobility is the future of industrial and public transportation
When we think about electric vehicles, especially battery-electric trucks, it is tempting to think that they work exactly like fuel vehicles, just without the emissions. However, the transition to electric vehicles poses challenges for many players in the transportation sector, and new services are needed to deal with these constraints and variables. That’s where tb.lx comes in.
You have to keep in mind that charging electric vehicles is not the same as filling up the tank. You can’t do it everywhere, the costs are harder to predict since the price of electricity fluctuates much more than fuel, and it takes much longer to fully charge an electric truck. Working with data-driven solutions is one of the ways to bring more predictability into this industry. — Clément de Coligny, Technical Porduct Owner at tb.lx
So, the work tb.lx is doing, together with our colleagues at Daimler Trucks & Buses, is a crucial part of enabling customers, such as fleet managers, logistics operators, drivers, and even cities, to electrify their fleets. In turn, this is essential to make transportation more sustainable.
Moreover, electric vehicles cannot be charged like we charge our phones and this is an additional challenge: “Cutting the charging cycle here and there damages the battery, which is one of the most expensive components of electric vehicles. So, besides ensuring that charging is done right and planning the tours and the use of the vehicle accordingly (which falls under the responsibility of operators), what we can also do at the software level is to use data to monitor the health of a battery.”
Established in Lisbon since 2018, tb.lx is developing software services that focus, on the one hand, on the charge management infrastructure for electric vehicles, and on the other hand, on the batteries of these vehicles. This 40-people team is strongly engaged with bringing more sustainability to the transportation sector, and e-mobility is the focus for 2021.
Sustainability manifests at all levels at tb.lx
I’m someone that questions the purpose of companies, it’s very important to me. At tb.lx, I feel connected to what I’m doing, I feel the impact that our products will have in the future, even if we’re still in the development phase. And I see it in other members of the team, too. We all share this common purpose and vision, and when we interview candidates, this is something that we look for as well. — Clément
Besides the projects at tb.lx, sustainability is also present in leadership, in the office, in the merchandise, and even on the team’s personal lives. For Clément, “it also reflects on my diet choices and lifestyle. I practically eat no meat. I don’t own a car; I always ride a bike everywhere I can. I am also into buying second hand clothes”.
Part of tb.lx’s eMobility team (from left to right): Backend Engineers Andriy and Raphael, Frontend Engineer António, and Clément, the Technical Product Owner.
This corporate startup is an example of using technology to have a positive impact in the world, making the transportation sector more sustainable and efficient, while also making Daimler Trucks & Buses evolve as a digital company.
I would say that eMobility is the future of industrial and public transportation. It’s a bet on our future. We all know about its benefits in terms of the environment and emissions — think about how the air quality improves in urban centres, for example. For our customers, it may represent a bigger investment, since it is quite expensive to electrify fleets, but the long-term advantages in terms of ownership and operational costs make it worthwhile. — Clément
And since tb.lx uses the latest tools and technologies in their daily work, having the word “Technical” in the Product Owner role at tb.lx makes total sense.
My role is essentially to make the bridge between the business partners that provide vehicles to our customers, and the technical team to translate the needs of our customer into software services. It’s about understanding what the business partner talks about and what our customer needs, and on the other side, how it translates technically to new services and technologies related to it. In eMobility it’s a lot about communicating with charging stations. — Clément
The entire team is impact-driven, the work mindset is very hands-on:
A while back, a small charging station was implemented in tb.lx’s office for testing purposes. This unit replicates the module that creates communication with charger both in the vehicle and in the backend software. The eMobility team at tb.lx uses it to validate their code against several test cases, to see how the charger responds to it.
Personally, having this charging station in the office makes work a lot more interesting. That’s one of the things I often think about: I spend my whole day in front of my computer, but having a tangible link with reality is a plus side. To know that whatever we do and implement has an impact on this charger, and on the vehicle, motivates me. And I’ve seen some of my colleagues be quite excited about this too, so I’d say it has a positive impact on the team as a whole. — Clément
And to ensure that it can also be used remotely, the team installed a smart plug in the charger, so that they can turn it on an off an app. As anyone working in IT, they need to do this quite often because it’s a way of resetting the charger and it fixes many problems (“have you tried turning it on and off again?”). The next step is to automate this, so that every time the team pushes new code, it is automatically tested with this charger without manual process.
Towards sustainable and connected transportation
Besides the commitment to eMobility, tb.lx also develops global connectivity solutions. The logistics and transportation sectors are extremely important in today’s world, and together with all units of Daimler Trucks & Buses, tb.lx seeks to “keep the world moving” in an intelligent, connected and sustainable way. In a very international, bold, and tech savvy environment, the team at tb.lx is shaping the future of transportation.
If you’d like to work at tb.lx alongside Clément and create services that’ll have an impact on sustainability, check out their open vacancies here.
Matching You with Your Future!
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