Audi Innovation is about shaping the future of smart mobility and fostering a smart mobility community in Taiwan. The concept of Mobility has become increasingly dynamic and it was never more in change than today. Moreover, Taiwan is a perfect environment for smart mobility innovations. It´s not about one disruptive technology like railway or car engines anymore. It´s about a development and adoption of technologies and the affiliation of technologies from various different sectors. Audi Innovation is focused on Urbanization, Digitalization and Sustainability. There were nearly one hundred startups that applied, all relevant to the three pillars. However, only 14 were selected.
The finalists were:
- Adenovo Tech, a FinTech company using AI to re imagine traditional car financing. They automate the process of user acquisition, paperwork, background check, underwriting and minimize the risk of bad debt.
- Astra Inc. provides cloud solutions and secure monitoring and management for cameras. They aim to make it easy for people to create and enjoy the benefit of Internet of Things.
- Bionicraft X Sydro is a BioLab/R&D/Design studio, gathering biologist, designer and architect.
They created a concept of putting biofilters in cars to clean the environment as the car moves through its environment. - Charge Smith is creating charging station maps and fostering a network of charging stations around Taiwan.
- creDa is looking to establish an efficient deep learning product eco-system. They aim to save the time that a human takes in the deep learning process.
- DT42 provides local A.I. solutions, so devices can understand videos and images offline. This solution can be installed into edge devices for deep learning inference to recognize people, object and actions.
- FlowVIEW Tek has a nano technology that will help speed up product inspection and quality assurance.
- Intumit, Inc. Its core technologies revolve around natural language processing, text mining, information extraction and deep learning, Intumit’s intelligent solutions can help enterprise customers extract business value from massive unstructured data.
- Mindtronic AI has developed an AI powered dashboard and in vehicle infotainment system
- NiveauUp enables faster charging while increasing the range of electric vehicles
- oToBrite Electronics has an automotive image sensing system
- PKLOT Corp enables automatic payments at parking lots and gas stations
- Spatial Topology Technology created an indoor positioning system that maps spaces by walking their technology placed in a backpack through a space.
- USPACE Tech is making parking spaces a part of the shared economy
Who took home the prizes
Ecosystem Prize Access to Audi Pavilion in Meet Taipei
DT42
DT42 focuses on connecting AI to devices. They provide local AI solutions so devices can understand videos and images. This solution can be installed into edge devices for deep learning inference to recognize people, objects and actions. DT42 has the potential to help speed up the image recognition in autonomous drive platforms.
Tern Prize: Tern Verge X20 (MSRP: USD 3,000) and 1:1 mentoring session
WeMo Prize: 10 months service subscription and 1:1 mentoring session
creDa
creDa, is an infinite AI data creator. It is currently being cooked in the National Chiao Tung University and plans to be founded in the mid of 2018. The goal of creDa is to establish an efficient deep learning product ecosystem. They aim to save the time that human takes in the deep learning processing. CreDa also has the potential to help speed up the image recognition in autonomous drive platforms.
Audi Prize NTD 300,000 and 1:1 mentoring session
Adenovo Tech
Adenovo is a Fintech company in Taiwan, that has modernized the car loan. They utilize Artificial Intelligence to provide risk management tools to financial institutions, enabling them to cut down management costs, save time, and lower bad debts. They built a bond market platform for individual users based on blockchain, optimizing supply chain finance. They have already received funding from Alibaba Group and have branch offices set up in Beijing and Shanghai.
In a surprise move Audi Innovation decided to have two winners of the AUDI AG prize. The two happy winners are NiveauUp and creDa.
Audi AG Add-on Prize – Visit Audi in Germany to work on Proof of Concept and potential partnership
Winners – NiveauUp and creDa
creDa has already taken home the WeMo prize but was additionally selected to visit the Audi HQ.
NiveauUp: NiveauUp’s lithium-ion battery tech solution is able to charge 10X faster, last 3X longer, without costing customers more. This has the potential to change the relationship that consumers have with their electric vehicles. NiveauUp has achieved a commercially viable solution that will allow batteries to charge faster and extend the range of the electric vehicle. The quality of the startups at the Audi Innovation Awards surprised the judges. Talking to Angela Leibinger, Digital Business and Mobility Team Coordinator at Audi TW: “Communication technology and VR enable us to have meetings in different time zones, working together on documents and even detailed car designs. In addition we are getting more and more aware of the fact that resources aren’t endless, as we focus more on a healthy living.” It’s clear that Audi has a global outlook on the future of mobility and is looking to the future from a truly holistic perspective.
“In order to build a smart mobility environment you need the right partners and the right ecosystem. I am very pleased that we have partners who are already successfully influencing smart mobility not only in Taiwan but international out of Taiwan.”
Designing future mobility
The topic at the Audi Innovation event was the creation and design of future and intelligent mobility. Different companies presented their technologies for the transportation of tomorrow. Spectators and jurors were enthusiastic about the startups and their innovations and technologies.