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.