Audi and the Future of Premium Mobility

The IOTA Foundation has revealed that Audi is looking into the technology. Let’s examine what this collaboration could mean for both IOTA and Audi’s foray into premium mobility.

Factbox

Audi:

- Headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany 
- €60 billion annual revenue (2017) 
- Member of the Volkswagen Group 
- 80,000+ employees 
- 1.87 million cars produced in 2017 
- The company’s name derives from the founder’s Latinized name (German “horch” = listen! = audi!)

The Audi Denkwerkstatt think tank describes its field as follows:

We can’t imagine life without mobility, yet nowadays ‘mobility’ goes way beyond the car, encompassing infrastructure solutions and new concepts of locomotion, as well as pedestrians. But what will the premium mobility of the future be? Who will define it, who will influence it and who will shape it? The Audi.Denkwerkstatt would like to answer this question with “WE WILL”. […] But ‘WE’ also means start-ups, technology partners and the creative talent who are helping us to develop and realize products and business models. ‘WE’ want to use Audi’s strength as a centre of technology expertise and combine it with start-ups’ skills in agile development, creative approaches and absolute customer focus. (source)

IOTA is one of these startups mentioned above. At the end of July, a team from this think tank organized a one-week Google Design Sprint to explore Tangle-based use cases, build a low level prototype, and gather customer feedback.

How is IOTA relevant in the eyes of Audi?

Being a premium car manufacturer, Audi is always looking for new ways to improve their products and impress their customers: