Bill's Work at Motorola

I worked in Motorola's Telematics Group.  Telematics means putting cellular phones and other data services in automobiles.  In 2001, Motorola shipped well over 500k telematics systems.  OnStar is Motorola's largest telematics customer.  There are currently over 2 million OnStar subscribers on the road.  The monthly impact of OnStar telematics systems is impressive:  375 stolen cars located via GPS; 15,000 doors unlocked; 14,250 roadside assistance vehicles dispatched, 300 of those calls resulting from airbag deployments.  See Motorola's telematics site here.

Mercedes Benz Tele Aid

I developed the Accessory Dialing feature for Motorola's V60 phones used in the Mercedes Benz Tele-Aid system, in accordance with GSM 07.07.  I also made significant changes to the Short Message Service support code.  My dialing feature and SMS code were deployed across Motorola's GSM, CDMA, and TDMA cell phone lines.  My code was written in C, and developed in a mixed Sun/Unix and Windows 2000 environment.  Configuration management was handled using Rational ClearCase, and I did several stints as "build monkey."  We used ClearDDTS to track defects and change requests.  Our software life cycle process included requirements, design, coding, and testing phases, and Fagan inspections.

Audi North America Liaison

I was chosen as the phone group's liaison to the Audi North America Telematics program.  I worked with the team programming the Telematics Control Unit (TCU) in the car to resolve interface issues between the TCU and the phone.  I coordinated resolution of interface issues with teams in Australia, Germany, and Chicago.

Weka

In order to debug communication between the cell phone and the Telematics Control Unit in the car, I designed and built a breakout box that let my team log serial communication in both directions.  At the time that I built this tool, Motorola's high end cell phone development projects were code-named for birds (e.g. Phoenix for the V60 phone).  This board is named for a flightless bird from New Zealand.

Bluetooth Hands Free Profile

I worked in a team of 4 engineers who implemented the AT command handlers for Bluetooth Hands Free Profile in Motorola 280i phones.  I developed software test tools that allowed us to use wired serial connections to test Bluetooth code features before a compatible Bluetooth car kit became available.  I successfully tested our Hands Free Profile implementation against other manufacturers' products at a Bluetooth SIG-hosted inter-operability testing session in Dallas, and at Bluetooth UnplugFest 8 in San Diego.