Opinno Think Tank Event at Audi

What is the future of the car as we know it? The entire automotive industry is facing a fundamental transition as the concept of mobility moves towards automation. Change is as inexorable for the future of mobility as the effect of the digital revolution on other sectors of industry. How to ascend to mobility’s digital future without fast decline?

Opinno was invited to orchestrate a 2-day event for Audi, Spain to answer this question and others. The event brought together a group of multidisciplinary experts of designers, artists, architects and professionals from the car industry and put them alongside a group of young innovators who were the 6 winners of a competition hosted by the MIT Technology Review to find the most talented under-35s in innovation. The Think Tank took place in Barcelona in November 2017 and was designed by Opinno.

Challenge

Pedro Moneo, Opinno’s CEO and director of the Spanish-language edition of the MIT Technology Review gave a keynote address on the future of mobility. Opinno’s challenge when organizing the think tank was how to design a 2-day program that would stimulate and inspire participants on the subject of future mobility at Audi and to come up with evolutionary strategies for change.

Opinno had to create a work dynamic among the many talented individuals present at the event that would explore the challenges faced by Audi while examining the emerging tendencies in the industry. This productive dynamic was encouraged by training in how to network with experts in the field and through talks with an inspirational focus.

Focus

For the first half of the 2-day event, participants were treated to a taste of the tendencies to come in the car industry, according to the Audi Summit experts present. How the challenge to incorporate these tendencies at Audi was also debated.

On the second day, the multidisciplinary group set to work. Their objective now was to identify the technological criteria in design and function that would describe the car of the future as produced by Audi, supported by the practical means to support the work dynamic generated in the training phase, a dynamic to facilitate the exchange of ideas and yield results.

Results

Among the innovative ideas produced during the event, these were the results:

• Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, the fully automated car will be enhanced the experience by the incorporation of ever-more sophisticated virtual assistance. Participants came up with a manifesto of 10 key features designed to enrich and diversify car users’ traveling time.
• Cars will be connected to each other via an infrastructure which will allow communication while traveling and ensure better safety and a more sustainable and personalized ride to work and back.