👋🏽 Buenos Dias Mexico City!

Feb 15 2019

This past week we took a short detour south of Brooklyn to sunny and beautiful Mexico City.

We were invited among 6 finalists to the FIA Smart Cities Global Start-Up Contest.

Chosen from 108 applicants from around the world, we were in great company with startups like CityFlag and Urbvan creating networked solutions for a more equitable future of our cities

Poray bikes, one of the largest bike-rentals in Mexico City had loaned us a bike as a prop for our presentation. And it turned out to be a great moment and a testament to CLIP’s design when our Alpha prototype fit the rental bike easily and without a fuss.

The impressive panel, comprised of leading global actors in the smart cities & clean urban-mobility space; most notably Felipe Calderón | President of Mexico 2006–2012. Credited for the creation of 16 Protected Natural Areas in Mexico, among the present 182.

Suffice to say it was an honor and absolute pleasure to converse with a leader of this beautiful country who was gracious enough to compliment us by saying he could see himself using CLIP.

On Feb 16, we had a wonderful opportunity to talk to and interact with some of the local residents of Mexico city. CLIP’s mission resonated clearly -The average person here spends 3 hours a day commuting, that’s almost 2 months a year stuck in traffic!

We feel rejuvenated from the incredible show of love and support from everyone who visited our stand and spoke with us.

Gracias & Hasta luego Mexico! We can’t wait to bring CLIP to you soon.

Thanks to the FIA and Mobility For All for the tickets, we got to witness the unbelievably close Formula-E race with LucadiGrassi clinching the win a mere half a car length at the finish line. 😱 (highly recommend watching the finish captured in the video below)

Last but not least, we spent our last day in the city at the Palacio Nacional admiring and trying to decode Diego Rivera’s brilliantly stunning and controversial mural. Packed with secret tongue-in-cheek symbols — like this child’s toy subtly hinting the Mayas independent knowledge of the wheel around the same time as the Mesopotamians.

Touché !

The History of Mexico mural in the stairwell of the National Palace in Mexico City was executed between 1929 and 1935 by Diego Rivera. The subject of the mural is Mexico’s history from ancient times to the present. They depict the many struggles of the common Mexican people to fight against the Spanish, the French, and the dictators that controlled the country at different points in its history.

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