Daimler AG has been using the hackathons since 2016 to bring the innovation culture of the digital natives into the company and has now assumed a leading role as the organiser of hackathons among automobile OEMs.
Primarily aimed at students and junior staff, the event series organised by DigitalLife@Daimler invites young bright minds to design the mobility of the future. Participants rack their brains in hackathons at tech events on three continents, each in cooperation with internal and external partners from the company group.
The final of the new series will take place at the Tech Open Air Festival 2019 in Berlin at the beginning of July.
"Hackathons are a great format to bring Daimler and young talented people together. These young people like to code and have a fresh view on the topic of mobility", said Markus Hägele, Head of DigitalLife@Daimler.
"The young professionals of tomorrow can get to know us as a potential employer and can get a feel for what is important in industry and whether it would be a professional field where they could realise their talents. We learn what is important for them when it comes to the mobility of the future, and we benefit from how they instinctively and assuredly deal with digital technologies. The innovation culture of today and tomorrow is shaped by the digital natives. Our task is to have this feed into our corporate culture even more."
The hackathons are organised by Daimler employees who act as mentors and offer input, advising and supporting the idea teams during the hackathons.
At the previous series, over 500 participants from 10 countries at 10 hackathons in Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin and the Silicon Valley, among other places, developed more than 50 innovative ideas and prototypes. Some of them now work at Daimler.
A week after the launch in L.A., the DigitalLife Campus will continue from Nov 23-25 in Helsinki at the JUNCTION. Daimler is one of the sponsors at the European hackathon with around 1,300 participants, and challenges the hackers to two mobility challenges. There will be two more hackathons in Europe and Asia in 2019 before the final in Berlin.
More information on this event are available at the Daimler microsite.
