Hey @everyone !
🎉 Congratulations to Shaun our first BYD SHARK 6 owner to have EVX installed!
A pretty exciting milestone for us here at All Terrain! Shaun was one of several people who took the plunge on Christmas Eve last year, joining our All Terrain EVX (formerly X Mode) Early Adoption Program before we had any idea of the timeframe and roadmap of EVX.
Technically though our very first Early Adopter was actually Joubert from South Africa and we certainly haven't forgotten him! However, as part of our rollout roadmap, we needed someone local in Australia who could make their vehicle available so we could film the first customer installation, document the fitting procedures and identify any challenges before we begin building out distribution kits for home installation.
A huge thank you to Shaun for making himself available and helping us take this next step under short notice.
🎥 Here's a video of Shaun after his very first drive with EVX installed, its very short and breif but its a moment that is exciting to all of us https://youtu.be/onVbCOYFfh8?si=Th5rodqvjYdTKISc
So, what happens next? First we ask anyone who is using the EVX App to ensure you continually UPDATE the app, you can see at the botom of the screen EVX Cloud, and this checks the cloud every 15mins for updates, if there is an Update avaliable, you can tap that EVX Cloud text 3 times to go to the page to do an update. We encourage you to stay up to date as we need to collect data from your vehicle to ensure compatability ahead of delivering, as we're finding there are some variations with versions and sensor data that may effect the EVX APP and how it registers initially with our EVX VCU hardware.
We're now inviting other EVX Early Adopters based in Melbourne who would like to have their systems installed by us as part of this initial rollout.
Following Melbourne, we're planning to complete a couple installations in Brisbane in early December, before shipping the remaining Early Adopter units around 11 December, with the aim of getting everyone's kits delivered in time for Christmas.
There's a reason we're approaching the rollout this way rather than simply putting every unit in a box and sending them out tomorrow. Today was important to verify the product is ready for early adopters at the most stable form, as we've spent considerable time developing and testing EVX, there's a big difference between working with our own development vehicles and having customers install the hardware themselves - we even forgot today, that there is a step that we forgot simply because we havent worked on a Shark that has never had the passenger seat removed!
These first installations allow us to validate our installation procedures, identify any unexpected challenges, refine our documentation and make any necessary changes before kits start arriving at people's homes, we want people to be able to install it as easy as possible, with a video guide to follow - instead of just pictures or text instructions.
The last thing we want is someone pulling apart their SHARK 6 over Christmas only to discover something we could have identified and resolved beforehand!
⚠️ IMPORTANT – EARLY ADOPTERS, PLEASE READ!
We still have a number of Early Adopters who haven't installed the EVX APP on their vehicle's infotainment system.
We really need everyone to get this done as soon as possible. The EVX APP isn't just there to configure your EVX hardware. It's also an important part of how we're managing hardware registration, VIN identification, firmware distribution and ongoing software updates.
Before we can dispatch your EVX hardware, we need your vehicle's VIN linked to your EVX account so we can correctly register and manage your unit and see if there are any version data from the OEM that appears new to us, or unusual.
This also allows us to deliver future OTA firmware and software updates and work directly with our Early Adopters to identify and resolve any issues that may emerge outside our own R&D testing environment.
And that's really what the Early Adoption Program is all about. We're certainly not going to pretend we've tested every possible scenario across every SHARK 6 out there, but an enormous amount of time, effort and research & development has gone into getting EVX thus far Personally, I've driven between Melbourne and Brisbane, a 3,600 km round trip, along with numerous flights back and forth throughout development. Francisco has also spent a significant amount of time flying down to Melbourne over the past few months as we've worked together to finalise development, integrate the EVX APP, validate the hardware and software and prepare for the early adopters rollout.
There's been a considerable amount of work happening behind the scenes that most people haven't seen, and it's certainly been a much bigger undertaking than we originally anticipated. But no matter how much testing we do ourselves, there's only so much we can learn from our own development vehicles. Getting EVX into the hands of real SHARK 6 owners, with different vehicles, driving styles and operating conditions, is the next important stage of our development roadmap... and I say development because we really do need to see how early adopters find the product and await feedback so we can ensure the pre-production and production roll outs go off with minimal issues (hopefully none at all)!
And that's exactly why we established the Early Adoption Program in the first place. It's about working closely with those who backed the project early, are an advanced users, understands there wont be a perfect product from the day they get it, learning from real-world experiences, identifying anything we may have missed and continuing to improve EVX as we move towards broader production and distribution.
There will almost certainly be things we learn along the way and having the ability to respond quickly with updates is a critical part of making this successful. For those who joined us early, thank you for your patience, your confidence in what we're developing and your willingness to be part of the adventure.
And once again, congratulations Shaun! It's fantastic to finally see EVX making its way into a customer vehicle.
