Porsche NEXT OI Competition — How Was It For You?
Last week was the final submission deadline of the Porsche NEXT OI Competition with teams all over the world who have been working feverishly to finish their project presentations and prototypes in time to be in with a chance of winning one of the top prizes.
The journey so far has been an exhilarating one for the teams taking part, with many highs and lows along the way as all strive to produce the very best prototype and project pitch to impress the high-calibre judges with.
In this post we’re going to be speaking to three different teams about their experiences of the competition as well as get the lowdown from one of the mentors, HIGH MOBILITY CTO Kevin Valdek, about what he’s learned during the last two months of the competition and what the most commonly-asked questions and queries have been that he’s received from the teams who have reached out to him for guidance and advice.
Want to find out what it’s really like taking part in the Porsche NEXT OI Competition?Then read on!
Kevin Valdek — Mentor for Porsche NEXT OI Competition, CTO & Co-Founder of HIGH MOBILITY
Kevin Valdek, co-founder and CTO of HIGH MOBILITY, plays two major roles in the Porsche NEXT OI Competition; his first role is as a mentor, on-hand to answer questions or assist with technical queries from the teams of developers taking part. His second role is that of a member of the jury, selecting the top teams from the hundreds of connected car projects.
We asked Kevin how he’s been finding his role as a mentor. It’s been an exciting journey, he told us. What was especially exciting for him was to see the amount of interest from so many different corners of the world. With entrants hailing from far-reaching places like Bangladesh and Africa, as well as many from Europe and the US, there’s no denying the growth in interest for building apps and services for connected cars. Kevin said:
“Being in touch with people in the competition has shown me that the interest in building solutions for cars is truly global.”
Kevin’s interaction with the project teams over the course of the competition has been frequent, with questions from developers and discussions about APIs taking place predominantly through the chat service Slack. The benefit of this tool, over, say, a forum or through email, is the option for participants to write both in group channels about specific subjects but also in private channels or communicating through private messages. Kevin told us he thinks Slack appeals specifically to developers because of this flexibility which would explain why it’s been such a popular tool during the competition.
And what have developers been asking him? Although there has been a mixture of questions from project teams about all platforms (IOS, Android & Node.js), if there was one standout request from developers over the course of the competition it would be requests for APIs for different kinds of sensor data, Kevin told us.
“This is valuable feedback for us”, he said. “We note it down so we can learn what developers want.”
All teams face challenges when putting together a project of this scope. In particular Kevin found that single-person project teams struggled the most in covering all the different aspects of completing their project alone. How does he help these solo developers?
“I try to bounce back ideas so that they can make the most of their prototype”, he explained.
We have reached out to all teams before April 28th to inform them if they are going through to the next round, now we’re getting closer to the finals!
Parkd
One of the teams we spoke to about their experience of the Porsche NEXT OI Competition was Parkd, a fully automated parking solution. The company currently offers parking payment solutions to their users via an in-vehicle Plug & Play parking dongle and smartphone app. The service ensures users are never faced with unexpected parking fines again, and are only charged for the parking they need, on a minute-by-minute basis.
The team entered the Porsche NEXT OI Competition because they wanted to adapt their service specifically to meet the needs of Porsche customers, describing the in-car solution they’re developing for the competition as: “an incredible milestone for Parkd” and something “we’ve dreamed about since the beginning.”
As a team, Parkd had already got significant experience under their belts developing apps for connected cars from collaborations with TomTom, FleetComplete, Invers and were inspired by the simple UX & UI of navigation apps like Waze . But when it came to developing their own connected car application, how did they feel about the Porsche competition so far? Great, it seems. The “parking ticket” APIs in particular were an excellent tool for the app the team wanted to develop. Parkd described their project for us:
“We want to bring our ´magic‘ parking solution to Porsche without the need for additional hardware. Just download the app and you’re ready to park like a boss.”
Fleetbird
Next up we spoke to Fleetbird, a Dortmund-based company which provides users with a software solution to run their free-floating car or scooter sharing businesses. The project team’s motivation for taking part in the competition was particularly Porsche-focused. Each team member was keen to work with Porsche technology because they believe it is not only a “great addition to existing concepts” but also because they wanted a chance to demonstrate how this unique technology enables new ideas.
Taking their functionality and design inspiration from apps including Postmates, myTaxi, and Car2Go, Fleetbird saw the competition as a chance to “grow as a team and build great concepts in a short space of time.” The range of APIs which enhance the business model of their project were also a big attraction.
Fleetbird kept their cards close to their chest when asked about the specifics of their project, but they would reveal this much:
“Our project brings together our platform with Porsche technology to build a new solution. We can’t tell you more yet, but it will be amazing!”
Block Zero
Block Zero from Malmö in Sweden, is a design research, UX and strategy company grounded in understanding the human needs and behaviours around every complex challenge. The company’s goal is to envision, design and develop new products and services using groundbreaking and emerging technology.
The project team at Block Zero entered the competition because as a company their goal is to play a role in defining the future of mobility and to innovate within the sector. However, another major factor for the team was to have the chance to collaborate with Porsche: “it was a no-brainer for us.”
We asked them to tell us their biggest highlight of the competition so far. They said:
“Using the in-browser Porsche car emulators has been an absolute delight, allowing us to truly hone the user experience of our concepts in an immersive way.”
And the biggest challenge?
“The biggest challenge has been focusing on just a few concepts from our many ideas and not getting too overwhelmed by the vast amount of APIs and data-sources available to us.”
Finally we asked them to describe their project:
“Our app will determine where you have parked through the integration of relevant car-parking applications, automatically taking care of starting and stopping the parking meter for you and handling the payment. In addition the app records the condition of the driver, utilising information on the driver’s heart rate, fitness tracking measurements and sleep-pattern data among other metrics to adjust the condition of the interior accordingly.”
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We hope you’ve enjoyed this little insight into the team and mentor experiences from the Porsche NEXT OI Competition. We’d like to say a big thank you to Kevin, Parkd, Fleetbird and Block Zero for sharing their thoughts.
We can’t wait to see your innovative ideas come to life!
