For two years now, the STARTUP AUTOBAHN event in Stuttgart in Southern Germany has witnessed more and more co-operation between partners in the automotive industry. Or, to put it another way, the family is growing and the products that are emerging from the partnerships are also becoming multifaceted.
So how does STARTUP AUTOBAHN work? The program is divided into three 100 day phases. First is the scouting phase including the ‘Selection Day’, the second one is the pilot phase with the ‘Expo Day’ as the closing event and last, but not least, the ‘Go real!’ phase.
39 start-ups were joined by 25 business partners to present the results from their projects. Daimler co-operated with 20 start-ups in all, in the fields of the future of mobility, smart production and enterprise 2.0.
Over the past 100 days, the entertainment tech start-up “holoride” has carried out three technical feasibility studies as part of STARTUP AUTOBAHN’s innovation program together with premium brands Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, and the Daimler subsidiary EvoBus – one of the leading bus manufacturers worldwide.
“We are grateful to STARTUP Autobahn for the many opportunities and contacts it has made possible for us. This has given our projects a major boost in recent weeks, enabling us to realise a prototype in just 100 days,” explains Nils Wollny, CEO of “holoride”.
Wollny, founded the entertainment tech start-up at the end of 2018 in Munich, together with Marcus Kühne and Daniel Profendiner.
“holoride” software offers a new media category called ‘elastic content’. Targeted for in-vehicle use, the content adapts to the driving time, movement, and environment of the vehicle for a highly-immersive experience, and significantly reduces motion sickness. The vehicle data becomes the basis for a new entertainment format. For the first time, previously unused transit time of passengers can be monetized for all participating partners. “holoride” has the potential to change in-vehicle entertainment forever.
The positive feasibility study with Porsche and Daimler “was really a run with the teams,” said Wollny.
And, together with EvoBus, it has even more great potential for the bus travel market.
The core technology, the “holoride” software development kit, translates the vehicle data so that content producers with existing game engines can easily create offering for passengers. For example, traffic light stops could become unexpected obstacles in a plot or the chance for a short quiz.
“It is no longer to drive from A to B, now you jump into an experience,” says Wollny.
“holoride opens up a new dimension in car entertainment. In the recent weeks, the team has impressively demonstrated what its technology can do – and we are convinced of holoride’s platform approach. We are looking forward to the next steps together,” sums up Dr. Christian Knörle, Project Manager Strategy and Innovation, Porsche AG.
Anja Hendel from the Porsche Future Lab adds: “Digitalisation comes to our lives. Car data and driving experience: we have more and more to combine it.”
Another award winner at the event in Southern Germany was a blockchain project guided by Daimler AG alongside start up-partners such as Riddle & Code from Vienna, Austria. The car itself will soon be to have a car wallet with secure features including blockchain connectivity and interoperability.
Project leader Harry Behrens from Daimler AG says: “We are very thankful for the chance to work with our start up-partners from the really beginning up to 100 days with high speed and today we can celebrating a really big success!”
The joint project of “holoride” and Porsche was one of only three projects in the program to receive the Global Innovation Award at the Expo Day. The Investor and Accelerator Plug and Play from Silicon Valley gives this award to outstanding projects of the STARTUP AUTOBAHN partners, which prove how competencies can be bundled to successfully master challenges together.
Porsche and Daimler have been partners of Europe’s biggest innovation platform, STARTUP Autobahn, since the beginning of 2017. It provides an interface between industry-leading companies and technology start-ups in Stuttgart. A number of companies have joined together in addition to Porsche and Daimler. For example: from the University of Stuttgart, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, DHL, Rolls-Royce, to Hyundai and BASF and many other.
On of the highlights of the event was a speech by the former NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who’s now a professor at the Columbia University.
In his keynote he said: “It is all about teamwork.” As the STARTUP AUTOBAHN shows, the most important thing in the world is to ask questions, to discuss with colleagues and then “to work hard in international groups” he added.
On the 50th anniversary of the first moon landings, Massimino showed wonderful images from his two trips to the space. He rightfully earned a lengthy applause for his emotional conclusion: “We all live in the same atmosphere and we should really work faster on future technologies!”
