Porsche x Startup Autobahn: Intelligent and Progressive Solutions for the Future of Mobility
The future is built on concrete: Stuttgart’s “Kulturbetrieb Wagenhallen” reminds us of Germanys engineering heritage. It features high ceilings and large gates, as well as solid grey concrete floors. A place where the past has long since been transformed by into the future, where an industrial factory has been transformed into a modern event hall. This is where start-ups from all over the world presented their ideas for the future of mobility last Thursday during Expo Day 7 of STARTUP AUTOBAHN.
But Expo Day 7, part of the largest open innovation platform in Europe, STARTUP AUTOBAHN, is much more than just a place for future visions and ideas. The platform brings together young start-ups from the tech and mobility scene alongside established companies such as Porsche, Daimler, the DHL Group or ZF Friedrichshafen AG. The goal is to jointly evaluate and drive forward intelligent and progressive solutions for the future of mobility — as sustainably and smart as possible.
Young start-ups meet traditional companies
Porsche has been a partner of STARTUP AUTOBAHN since 2017 — and a Taycan was on display in the hall on this occasion. This Porsche of the future is powered by electricity and is intelligent connected. The Taycan not only represents change for Porsche and the whole automotive industry: it combines the history of Porsche Design icons with smart technologies and drive systems of tomorrow.
Numerous young entrepreneurs, investors and partners gathered around Porsche’s first all-electric sports car during Expo Day 7. These include existing partners from the Porsche ecosystem such as the Berlin-based blockchain start-up Gapless, as well as new faces: the weather technology platform Clima Cell, the moving sensor developers InMotion Labs and Natural Fiber Welding, which offers innovative upcycling solutions.
STARTUP AUTOBAHN brings together industry leaders and young technology companies. At the heart of each six-month program, enterprise partners work with start-ups to test technologies and achieve a common goal: a production-ready application.
Shaping the future together: Porsche x Way Ahead
Since 2016, STARTUP AUTOBAHN has worked with more than 220 start-ups on over 320 pilot projects in the areas of mobility production and enterprise. The cooperation between Porsche and the start-up Way Ahead Technologies shows how both sides can learn from each other and grow together.
The Swiss start-up presented a head-up display project at Expo Day 7. Way Ahead tracks, maps and visualizes journeys in real-time and 3D using ordinary 2D cameras. The technology transforms data into a 3D environment and also offers high-precision playback for interactive analysis.
An ecosystem for the future
The partnership between the 3D experts from Zurich and Porsche came about as part of the Porsche NEXT OI Competition, an in-house innovation contest held together with High Mobility. Recently, this competition led to the creation of Way Ahead, and further projects and applications will follow. Applications for collaboration include new types of navigation scenarios that can be optimized in terms of safety and danger zones, as well as predictive routes and lane guidance. In addition, the technology can be used in the gaming sector, where real driving data is used to enhance the user experience.
This example illustrates that STARTUP AUTOBAHN offers an entire ecosystem for successful cooperation, which fits seamlessly into the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer’s program of working with young companies and laying foundations for the future.
Further information regarding Porsche’s participation in STARTUP AUTOBAHN can be found on the Porsche Newsroom. In the coming days we will present further projects and individual case studies here on the Porsche Technology Blog. Stay tuned!
Christoph Acker is Manager Innovation & Strategy at Porsche AG.
About this publication: Where innovation meets tradition. There’s more to Porsche than sports cars — we’re tackling new challenges, develop digital products and think digital with focus on the customer. On our Medium blog, we tell these stories. It´s about our #nextvisions, smart technologies and the people that drive our digital journey. Please follow us on Twitter (Porsche Digital, Next Visions), Instagram (Porsche Digital, Next Visions, Porsche Newsroom) and LinkedIn (Porsche AG, Porsche Digital) for more.
