Local Motors and BMW Group Announce Winners of the Urban Driving Experience Challenge

Nov. 6, 2012 - PRLog -- Local Motors (http://www.localmotors.com/) and the BMW Group (http://www.bmwgroup.com/e/nav/index.html?../0_0_www_bmwgroup_com/home/home.html&source=overview) announced the winners of their first collaborative design and development project – the Urban Driving Experience Challenge. The challenge asked the Local Motors community of nearly 30,000 designers, engineers, fabricators and enthusiasts to define the future premium vehicle features that would revolutionize urban mobility in the year 2025 and beyond. The three-week competition was held on the Forge at LocalMotors.com from Sept. 25 through Oct. 16, 2012. By the end of the challenge period, nearly 3,500 individual design boards had been submitted in support of just over 400 innovative feature concepts.  

After an extensive review and validation process, 286 entries were qualified as having met all specified criteria. A council of 14 BMW Group executives reviewed these entries, and BMW Management selected the top 10 concepts. “Our experience with the Local Motors community far exceeded our expectations,” says Dr. Christoph Grote, managing director of BMW Group Research and Technology. “It was very important for us that the entries showed a clear customer need behind the functionality, and that they applied specifically to an urban environment. We were impressed, not just with the number of entries, but by the real innovation and quality of each presentation. Working with such an inspired group of designers and engineers has been exciting and has given us a broader perspective for future mobility solutions.”

Each entry was unique and innovative in its own right, representing a wide range of concepts including interior design, connectivity, the future of car sharing and the application of new technologies, among others.  

“This was a very different kind of challenge for our global community,” said Jay Rogers, co-founder and CEO of Local Motors. “Focused not on physical vehicle design but on the human driving experience, we asked them to define feature and function concepts that would really push the envelope of specialty automotive design…and they did not disappoint. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who participated.”

The final ranking of the top 10 BMW-selected concepts was determined based on how the Local Motors community rated each concept on each of three criteria: How do you rate the expected customer benefit? How do you rate the completeness of the submission? How do you rate the impact on urban mobility in 2025?

First place was awarded to Anthony Franze (aka Franze) from Adelaide, Australia for his winning design, the premium vehicle-sharing club BMW Reward Me (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=11232). Anthony will receive a $7,500 cash prize for his concept, and a trip to Munich, Germany to meet with managing director of BMW Group Research and Technology Dr. Christoph Grote. Second and third place prizes of $2,500 and $1,500, respectively, were awarded to Kevin Lo (aka ReLoad) of Washington, USA for his concept – BMW Vision BreatheFree (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10832&...), and to Guillaume Coolen (aka Orbitlane), from Tokyo, Japan for his BMW Eye-3 (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10865&...) concept.

Entries for the BMW Urban Driving Experience Challenge were received from Local Motors community members from around the globe. The complete list of Finalists, including countries of origin, is as follows:

1st place: BMW Reward Me (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=11232), by Anthony Franze – Australia
2nd place: BMW Vision BreatheFree (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10832&tab=project-home), by Kevin Lo – United States
3rd place: BMW Eye-3 (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10865&tab=project-home), by Guillaume Coolen - Japan
4th place: BMW FlipFold (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10871&tab=project-home), by Xavier Gordillo – Spain
5th place: BMW Intelligence Link – Autonomous Car Functioning (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10727&tab=project-home), by Devon Palmer – United States
6th place: Em_Power (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=11272&tab=project-home), by Joe Siegler – USA
7th place: My DRIVE Style (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=11194&tab=project-home), by Santiago Pena – Columbia
8th place: BMW Lamina (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10866&tab=project-home), by Sebastian Kunz – Germany
9th place: BMW BodyGuard (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=10712&tab=project-home), by VRP – United States
10th place: BMW Adaptive Flow (https://forge.localmotors.com/pages/project.php?cg=11259&tab=project-home), Andy_Lee_Tomorrow – Australia

Challenge Schedule
Phase two of the BMW Urban Driving Experience Challenge will begin the week of Nov. 12, 2012, and conclude by Nov. 30, 2012. Complete details about phase two of the Urban Driving Experience Challenge – including a written design brief that explains context, scope and explicit details about the guidelines, requirements and deliverables for all entries will be available at www.localmotors.com/bmw.

“BMW has been an inspired partner,” Rogers concludes. “Their involvement in the first phase of this challenge was extraordinary; creating a real one of-a-kind opportunity for our community. Working hand-in-hand with the BMW experts empowered them to produce some amazing results. I can’t wait to see what develops next.”

About Local Motors
Local Motors leads next-generation, crowd-powered automotive manufacturing, design and technology to enable the creation of game-changing vehicles. Through open-source principles, Local Motors co-creates innovative vehicles and components with its virtual community of nearly 30,000+ designers, fabricators, engineers and enthusiasts from around the world. Outlets such as the New York Times, Popular Science, Wired and Popular Mechanics, as well as the Discovery Channel, have recognized Local Motors for its groundbreaking approach to automotive development. For more information and/or to join the Local Motors Community, visit www.localmotors.com.

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Media Contact:
Andrea Kalmanovitz
On Behalf of Local Motors
Mobile: (602) 980-2040
Email: andrea@davidandsampr.com

Amy Romano
Local Motors, Inc.
Mobile: (480) 371-0575
Email: aromano@local-motors.com

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