Ford launches Innovative Mobility Challenge Series

The Innovative Mobility Challenge Series has kickstarted from July 15 at Lisbon in Portugal, Los Angeles in United States, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai in India, Shanghai in China, Johannesburg in South Africa, and a country-wide challenge in Argentina.

Commenting on this, Paul Mascarenas, Chief Technical Officer and Vice-President, Research and Innovation, Ford, said, “Reaching out to local stakeholders lets Ford more effectively address the diverse mobility challenges around the world. Launching our Innovate Mobility Challenge Series in eight different regions will bring global and local players together in the pursuit of one goal, which is a smarter and more efficient transportation network for the future.”

Different cities face diverse mobility issues, hence, the challenges for each city across the world are also unique. In a city like Mumbai, where a heavy shower of rain can leave the transportation crippled, participants are required to take on the Monsoon App Downpour Challenge which will focus on leveraging vehicles and information to improve mobility during inclement weather. Participants from Mumbai can submit their entries from July 15 to October 14, 2014. The names of the winners will be announced in November 2014.

Delhi participants will face the SUMURR Golden Hour Challenge which requires them to develop software applications which will help to reduce the time required to reach healthcare facilities within the critical ‘Golden Hour’ after a traumatic incidence occurs. Developers from Chennai will face the SUMURR mHealth Challenge where they will need to develop applications that will focus on improving healthcare service accessibility for remote rural regions accessible from Chennai. Participants from Delhi and Chennai can submit their entries from July 30 to October 30, 2014.

Developers can design apps using Ford’s OpenXC program, which is an open-source software and hardware platform. This platform enables developers to access more than 15 types of vehicle data which includes information related to vehicle speed, engine speed and fuel-level.

These competitions will be judged by local authorities and experts from each city that Ford will partner with. The prize for Mumbai, Lisbon and Los Angeles will be totaling of Rs 18 lakh for each challenge, with a grand prize of Rs 10 lakh for the winner of each challenge. The American carmaker hasn’t announced prizes for the other challenges yet.