Internal Only

May 29, 2024

As part of our ongoing initiatives to provide customers better insight into emissions as well as to support their sustainability efforts, we are excited to announce the launch of the Emission System Report for Reveal. 

The Emission System Report provides customers insight into the health of vehicle systems that contribute to emissions. Specifically, the report shows when monitor failures or diagnostic trouble codes (DTCs) are detected for these specific vehicle systems. Armed with this information, customers can take steps to proactively repair their vehicles. 

For the initial launch of the Emission System Report, we can collect data from Vehicle Data Devices (VDD) to populate the report. Xirgo XT devices with an engine control module (ECM) data installation will be eligible to send data to populate the report when the upgraded firmware, version 1191, is deployed in the coming months.

At its core, the Emission System Report is a new vehicle maintenance report. The purpose of the report is to show customers when issues arise with vehicle systems that contribute to emissions. Data provided by the report includes:

• Check engine light distance - the distance the vehicle has traveled with the engine light on during the selected reporting period
• Check engine light time - the total time the engine light has been on during the selected reporting period
• Monitor failures - the total number of monitor failure during the reporting period as well as the specific monitor failures by date
• DTCs - the total number of DTCs recorded during the reporting period as well as the specific DTCs recorded on individual dates 
• Battery voltage - the vehicle’s battery voltage if a monitor failure or DTC was recorded
• RPM - revolutions per minute for the vehicles when the monitor failure or DTC was recorded

In the past six months, we enabled 500 accounts with the Emission System Report as part of the initial soft launch. From that, we have had 77 accounts interact with the report, many of which have been repeat users.

By reviewing monitoring system failures and DTC codes, customers can know exactly what issues are affecting their vehicles. Armed with this knowledge, customers can take proactive steps to get these issues addressed. This data helps customers: 

• Reduce maintenance costs - since customers will know what issue is affecting a vehicle before taking it in for maintenance, they will not have to incur additional costs to have the issue diagnosed by the mechanic.
• Reduce vehicle downtime - since the mechanic can get to work right away on the actual issue affecting the vehicle, it should take less time to conduct repairs.
• Pass emissions checks - customers will be able to address issues affecting a vehicle’s systems that contribute to emissions before taking the vehicle in for an emissions test. This increases the chances that the vehicle will pass the test.

The Emission System report is compatible with light and medium duty internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles that have a vehicle tracking unit installed. The report does not include information for electric vehicles or heavy-duty vehicles at this time. 

Compatibility for light and medium vehicles was prioritized as part of the efforts to comply with California Bureau of Automotive Repair (BAR) Continuous Testing Program (CTP) which pertains to light and medium duty vehicles. 

We are currently preparing to submit to the California Air Resources Board (CARB) Clean Truck Check program, which pertains to heavy duty vehicles.  As part of the continued development, we will look to incorporate heavy duty vehicles into the report in 2025.

In order to populate the Emission System Report with a specific vehicle’s data, ECM mode must be enabled for that vehicle. If only GPS is enabled for that vehicle, no data will be populated in the report.

When a vehicle is in ECM mode and data was collected during the reporting period, but no issues were detected, the customer will get a notice that there were “No active emissions for DTCs for the report period.”

On the other hand, if no data was collected for the period, either because the vehicle was not in ECM mode or because there was an issue with the vehicle tracking unit, then the customer will get a notice that there were “No drive cycles for this report period.” At launch, this is also the notice customers will receive for vehicles that have a Xirgo device installed.

In the next few months, we will be adding additional features for the Emission System Report. These additional features include:

• Xirgo compatibility - adding compatibility for Xirgo devices as soon as possible. 
• GPS mode notice - shows when vehicles are in GPS mode instead of ECM mode so that customers will know exactly why no data is showing. 
• Backoff mode notice - shows when vehicles are in backoff mode so that customers will know exactly why no data is showing.

Q: Can the Emission System Report be used in lieu of physical emissions checks or tests?

A: No. Currently no states will accept the results of the Emission System Report in lieu of having emissions checks. Instead, a report can help customers identify issues with their vehicles and have those issues repaired before they go in for a physical emissions check. 

Q: Does the Emissions System Report show the actual particles coming from a vehicle?

A: No. Most emissions checks no longer test the actual emissions coming out of a vehicle’s tailpipe. Instead, emissions checks collect OBD-II port data to see if a vehicle’s systems are functioning properly. As such, providing data on the health of these systems is more important to help customers pass emissions checks. 

Q. Is this report part of the California Bureau of Automotive Repair Continuous Test Program Pilot?

A: The Emissions System Report is separate from the BAR CTP. The Emissions System Report is available to all US Reveal Customers, while the BAR CTP is only available for CA government customers. However, if BAR CTP participating customers receive a notice that an issue was detected by BAR, those customers may be able to use the Emissions System Report to identify the issue.

Q. When I run the report, the message “No drive cycles for this report period” shows for some of my vehicles. However, I know the vehicle was driving during the selected timeframe. What does this mean?

A: There are a couple things that might cause this message to appear. Let's verify the type of devices that you have are currently eligible for this report.  All Vehicle Data Devices in ECM mode should be eligible but any Xirgo XT device has not yet received the required firmware upgrades in order to populate data.  This message may appear if the device you have is not collecting the required data.

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