On Expo Day 10 on 21 July, the sports car manufacturer will provide an insight into its data strategy with the Porsche Data Cup and Porsche Connect Partner Services. The opening address will be delivered by Uwe-Karsten Städter, Member of the Executive Board responsible for Procurement at Porsche AG, and his designated successor Barbara Frenkel. Through their participation, Porsche is underlining the importance of cooperation with start-up companies.
“At Porsche, we fulfil the dreams of our customers,” says Uwe-Karsten Städter, Member of the Executive Board at Porsche AG. “To do this, we rely on the know-how of our highly qualified engineers and technicians. But external partnerships are becoming increasingly important when it comes to obtaining the most innovative technologies for our company and our products. This is a success factor in the area of digitalisation in particular. Startup Autobahn is an important platform that allows us to establish contact and enter into cooperations with innovative young companies.” Porsche has been collaborating with Startup Autobahn since 2017. The goal is to find innovative partners who bring new ideas into the company and who can realise pilot projects quickly.
Porsche Data Cup: digital innovation competition
As part of the virtual Expo Day 10, Porsche is inviting developer teams from different companies to take part in a digital innovation competition. In the Porsche Data Cup, participants have the task of developing data-driven B2B2C technologies for Smart Home, Fintech & Insurance and E-mobility applications. Over the course of more than six weeks, the developer teams had the opportunity to work with realistic vehicle data from more than 140 open application programming interfaces. The most promising solutions will now be presented. The winning teams will have the chance to further develop their prototypes together with Porsche experts within the framework of the Porsche Connect Partner Services. This programme will offer Porsche drivers a complete ecosystem of custom services for their vehicle. With the Porsche Connect Partner Services, the sports car manufacturer is extending its digital offering and will offer its customers an enhanced Porsche experience.
Artificial intelligence in the canteen: Delicious Data
At the Expo Day, Porsche will present three projects that have been developed in collaboration with start-up companies. The Delicious Data project supports Porsche with artificial intelligence in the daily planning of the required number of meals. This helps to avoid excess production and reduce food waste. In this way, the technology reduces costs and makes the company more sustainable. A deep learning algorithm supplies forecasts on the number of expected guests and menu distribution. This can have a direct impact on the products used and lead to both savings and quality improvements. Porsche has piloted the AI solution and is now rolling it out successively.
The other projects that will be presented by Porsche are the cooperations with the companies NXRT and Spread. The Austrian start-up NXRT makes it possible to go on mixed-reality test drives with real vehicles. This allows car buyers to test new functions such as autonomous driving. This reduces the accident risk for the dealers and their customers and at the same time increases sales revenue. The Berlin company Spread offers a digitalisation solution that supports production of workshop media by technical authors in aftersales with the assistance of AI and a digital twin.
About Startup Autobahn
The innovation platform Startup Autobahn acts as an interface between industry-leading companies and technology start-ups in Stuttgart. The programme enables corporate partners and start-ups to jointly develop prototypes to evaluate possible further collaborations between the two parties, test the technology and initiate production-ready implementation. The projects are set up to run for a period of six months. A number of companies have joined forces for this. In addition to Porsche, they include Daimler, the University of Stuttgart, Arena 2036, DXC Technology, ZF Friedrichshafen, Bosch, Schaeffler and BASF. Porsche has realised 80 projects with Startup Autobahn so far. Around a third of the results are incorporated in series development.
