ŠKODA AUTO DIGILAB

SMARTER RIDE

THROUGH

THE CITY

ŠKODA AUTO DIGILAB EXPANDS AND ENHANCES

THE RANGE OF ITS SERVICES

W

hen the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab’s in- in e-shops deal with a prosaic issue. A delivenovation centre was created in 2017, ry service rings their doorbell, and they are still

its goal was clear: To significantly stuck at the doctor’s office or at an emergency

contribute to transforming ŠKODA AUTO from meeting. What if the courier could deliver the

a traditional car manufacturer

goods to the customer’s luggage

into a provider of smart mobicompartment, they wondered,”

With the tested mobility

explains David Beška, CMO of

lity solutions. During its short

services, the ŠKODA

ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab. It only

existence, it has expanded from

AUTO DigiLab team

took a few months to devethe Czech Republic to Israel and

continuously thinks

China and launched several very

lop a mobile app, and they fouabout the added value

promising projects.

nd suppliers of smart and secuthey could bring to the

re technology that would allow

carmaker’s product and

the courier to open the car for

Customer under the X-ray

service offering.

a limited amount of time. They

Understand the clients’ needs,

look for modern technologies

have installed it in trial models,

that make their daily life easier or more plea- agreed with online stores Alza.cz and Rohlik.cz

sant, develop the service as quickly as possi- and begun testing the service. “If the trial operable and, after successfully testing it, include it in tion is successful, services and technology will

ŠKODA AUTO’s offering. This is the mission of become part of the car offering and make the

the Prague Innovation Centre. “For example, re- brand more attractive to customers,” adds Jarmisearchers found that numerous people shopping la Plachá, Head of ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab. RED

14 ŠKODA MOBIL SEPTEMBER 2019

Mobility with

care

Another service from the

carmaker’s innovation centre

workshop is designed for

those who need transport

assistance: children, the

handicapped and seniors. The

service is called CareDriver,

and it is an assistance

transport service managed

by trained professionals called

Careprofs. They must have

completed a special course to

work with the given clients,

a clean criminal record and at

least three years of driving

experience. Most often, they

drive children to their afterschool activities or seniors

who wish to go shopping or

visit medical facilities. They

accompany their passengers

to their destination or back

to the car. The analysis is

currently underway before

launching the service in other

cities, including Prague.

The popularity of

carsharing is growing

Older projects are being developed at the Innovation Centre

as well. The HoppyGo’s car-sharing platform reports over

60,000 registered users who have already completed

4.5 million kilometres since its launch. They may now rent

Czech brand cars owned by the HoppyGo, which they

unlock themselves and take over without any keys. The

Uniqway carsharing platform is being developed and used

by students at all the Czech universities as well. The fleet

of 16 cars will expand with seven additional cars by the

end of the year. In addition, users will be delighted with

another new feature: In the capital, free parking zones have

been extended. The e-MONA mobile charging stations

are now used by one of the largest carsharing services in

Prague, CAR4WAY, which operates 50 electric cars. At the

same time, the innovation centre in cooperation with Berlin

located start-up Chargery, is working to improve the charger

capacity, which will accelerate car charging from hours to

dozens of minutes.