Berlin-based Porsche Digital Lab visited Southeast Asia for the first time last month, reflecting the region’s growth as a hotbed for technology innovations, and Singapore’s unique advantage as the perfect hub for Porsche’s market development in the Asia Pacific region.
During this visit, Porsche Digital Lab’s Anja Hendel and Andy Grau, in collaboration with Porsche Asia Pacific (PAP), participated in Innovfest Unbound – Southeast Asia’s largest and most exciting innovation festival with well over 15,000 attendees this year. This festival anchors Smart Nation Innovations Week, which comprised a week-long series of events showcasing Asia’s most innovative technological developments.
“Singapore is very much the gateway between the east and the west, offering access to the great innovation ecosystem with technologies, partners and talent that are abundantly available at our doorstep. People in this region welcome and embrace new technology, which sets the stage for open discussions and actions to improve the future of mobility,” said Anja Hendel, Director at Porsche Digital Lab.
Anja spoke at the Smart Nation Summit forum, a closed-door event primarily catered to government officials and delegates from across the world, about digital transformation varying across different sectors, and how businesses need to constantly transform due to changing user behaviour in this era of disruption. An example is consumers wanting to interact with their cars in new ways and the great strides made in digital transformation by Porsche in response to this demand.
Over at the Innovfest Unbound event, Anja spoke at a fireside chat and at two Porsche co-hosted mobility panel discussions on the future of sustainable mobility. Porsche’s discussions with smart mobility experts highlighted how the mobility sector as a whole is moving in the right direction, with sustainable and efficient transportation modes being key to solving Asia’s urban transportation challenges. “Deep tech is also vital to shaping the future of mobility in the region, and Porsche has made great advances in using technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things,” said Anja.
“Porsche has made great advances in using technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, and Internet of Things” Anja Hendel
With the Porsche Digital Lab focusing on the question of how Porsche can take innovations from the fields of big data and machine learning, micro services and cloud technologies, Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things, and turn them into practical solutions – Anja and Andy were in Singapore to connect with innovative technology companies, start-ups and scientific institutions from the region they haven’t met before. PAP, being fully embedded in this thriving Asia Pacific region, reached out to local innovation communities to start fruitful discussions.
Accomplished startups pitched their techonologies for autonomous mobility solutions powered by artificial intelligence, bike and e-scooter sharing technology, connected car services technology and technology for autonomous driving regardless of weather conditions.
Innovfest Unbound
Anja Hendel and Andy Grau, Project Leader for Innovation Management at Porsche, also made certain to meet with innovation labs of companies from the region. Insightful dialogues and learnings around the digital revolution only affirmed the ongoing digital transformation at Porsche.
Porsche’s focus on digital transformation was the driver behind Porsche Digital Lab’s participation in Smart Nation Innovations Week, as well as the revamped Singapore office. As the regional office for PAP, the newly renovated Singapore office offers a digitalised environment and agile working groups that allow the team to respond faster and flexibly to challenges in this age of disruptive technology.
