Skoda, a company known to make cars that appeal to everyone, especially the chauffeured and the enthusiast. The car known for powerful engines, decent reliability, practicality, and solid European build quality. Not to mention amazing handling, ride comfort and providing more value than other German cars. This time around, they are doing something different for a change. They are hosting a hacking contest!
i-Mobilothon 2022
An interesting mix of transformative ideas emerged at the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab India’s ‘i-Mobilothon 2022’, with Dave.ai and Xane.ai winning the hackathon with a breakthrough idea on the Metaverse and Artificial Intelligence. The second run of i-Mobilothon, which concluded today, saw over 50 start-ups taking up the challenge and developing some outstanding workable ideas. This year, i-mobilothon received more than 200 registrations from start-ups and students to internal employees entering across various categories. But, how does this help the automotive industry, except for some good promotion and marketing? The concepts and discoveries that are going to take place in i-Mobliothon have the potential to help the automotive industry by addressing the mobility needs of customers more effectively.
The Challenges
So, the hackathon events were organized under four banners: the Internet of Things (IoT), mobility solutions in the Metaverse, transforming mobility solutions with Artificial Intelligence, and holistic sustainability. The second run saw many interesting solutions, addressing issues in the Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, and the IoT. The thirteen-week hackathon went live on 12 September 2022, followed by mentoring sessions and the final Jury session on 22 November 2022. The hackathon was held in hybrid mode in two stages – the inauguration and the final proof-of-concept presentations.
Students, start-ups, and Volkswagen Group employees competed in teams at the i.Mobilothon hackathon. The contest offered an inclusive, agile, and multi-disciplinary launch pad for India’s creative minds and code developers to apply their skills in building prototypes that drive real business impact at scale. The hackathon was open to start-ups, university students across India, as well as employees of Volkswagen Group companies in India. Contestants developed and designed prototypes that promote future car connectivity and enhance the customer experience, business digitization, and pre-sales and post-sales solutions driven by Artificial Intelligence, augmented reality, and data analytics.
Piyush Arora, Managing Director of ŠKODA AUTO Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd, had this to say about this interesting event- “The Indian automotive and tech ecosystem is truly world-class, and this is what we witnessed at ‘i-mobilothon 2022’. Innovation is central to our business in the VW Group, and the i-mobilothon platform enables us to kindle this spirit and at the same time identify and collaborate on innovative mobility solutions. I congratulate both Dave.ai and Xane.ai for winning with their brilliant concept and all participants for demonstrating exceptional innovation.
We look forward to cooperating with them to develop tailor-made digital mobility solutions for our discerning customers in the region. The past thirteen weeks of ‘i-mobilothon 2022’ leading up to the award ceremony today have been an overwhelming and enriching experience.”