"We can do advanced analytics and valuable assets for our customers"

As the transport business continues with its intense digitalisation process, so too does Scania. Huge amounts of real-time data are being transmitted to and from the more than 600,000 Scania vehicles over telecom networks in all markets. And Senior Developer and Data Scientist, Dávid Takács enjoys to play a key role in our digital transformation.

On a day-to-day basis Dávid works with data collection and aggregation to turn connected vehicle information into digital products. It includes the packaging and analysis of a vast and constant data flow – to understand the infrastructure and for example keep track of costs for global telecom transmissions. “We use Amazon Web Services (AWS) for our digital infrastructure, and we placed a database application from Snowflake® on top of this. This set-up makes it possible for us to do advanced analytics and to construct a data warehouse with valuable assets for our customers,” he explains.

Dávid left his native land Hungary five years ago, to work for a Swedish tech start-up in Stockholm. Later, while he was looking for new assignments he turned to Scania, and joined this new data scientist group with two other developers. The small department had the character of an agile start-up, transforming traditional IT management into a totally cloud-based service business for the transport sector. To fully understand the business and the customer demands they started with a real hands-on reality check: “During my first 18 months we visited dealers and customers to learn about their daily operations on-site. I found that we have a lot of interesting data, which is valuable for the development of their respective businesses and for the whole transport sector,” he says.

Dávid’s department now consists of six data scientists and he is a key member of the team. With his extensive experience of software engineering and machine learning, he has become a popular mentor for younger developers. Working for Scania in Sweden also means that Dávid sees a bright future ahead for him and his family. He lives near the office in Södertälje with his wife and two little boys, and sometimes has the chance to work from home. The family spends most of their free time together exploring outdoor activitets in the green sorrundings.

As fleets of electric vehicles continue to grow, Dávid believes that digitalisation has huge potential for Scania and the wider world. Today’s transport sector is built around the century-old infrastructure based on combustion engines but electrification is challenging the old habits and predictability of diesel culture, as well as making transport more sustainable.

He believes that enhanced digitalisation is going to be crucial for successful fleet management in the future.

“Customers who are already investing in electric vehicles have lots of questions about range prediction, charging planning and transport optimisation,” Dávid explains, “which makes it even more satisfying for us to be able to support a sustainable future for their business with Scania.”