Last week, while in Tel Aviv for mobility week, I had the pleasure of spending time with the Škoda team. We met in a hip and funky Mindspace room with built in wooden benches covered in pillows, where journalists from around Europe lounged and listened to Škoda’s innovation vision. Native tongues varied from Czech, Spanish, French, Italian, German and Hebrew, yet we all spoke in English. There was excitement and energy in the cozy space.
Škoda announced a joint venture between ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab and Champion Motors – ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab Israel Ltd – which allows excellent access to talent and technologies from the IT industry. The focus is on the digitalisation and creation of mobility services, which are the cornerstones of ŠKODA AUTO’s 2025 Strategy. They picked four of their technologies to present, and Otonomo was one of them. We are honoured to be partnering with this team.
We talked about how we are testing, normalizing and enhancing data across their vehicles and gearing up to enable the delivery of quality services that make driving a truly rewarding experience. Right now we are exploring solutions for smart city and parking, while mapping out innovative offerings such as on-demand fuelling, in-car package delivery, usage based insurance and more! The journalists were engaged and enjoyed hearing about the possibilities. When I asked them if they wanted these services, there was a resounding “yes” from them all.
Quite a few articles have been published across Europe and Israel so far this week; here are just a few, with more to come. I will update this post as they hit the wire.
You can read them here:
WIRED IT – DigiLab, showcases the best Israeli startups for the automotive world
Ctech – Czech Automaker Škoda Announced Collaboration with Four Israeli AutoTech Startups
Antyweb – “Cars are the fastest growing technology segment.” A visit to the Israeli DigiLab Skoda
Komputerswiat – Skoda Auto is betting on start-ups. A visit to DigiLab Skoda in Israel
