This is how we won the ŠKODA hackathon Race2Code

Iteration

First, we iterated through dozens of ideas — from a service application that reminds the user of an oil change or a service tour, to a crazy idea for a drag race of the company's cars at traffic lights. Finally, we decided to elaborate on the idea of the ŠKODA Arcade, which combines a powerful business case and all platforms including Apple CarPlay, Android Auto & Android Automotive.

A more interesting and engaging journey for all ages

ŠKODA Arcade is an entertainment platform containing several applications. As part of the hackathon, we have elaborated the application the most QUIZbut in my ideas I did not forget karaoke for passionate singers, racing game for small passengers or white noise generator For peace of mind and ears... In short, activities that entertain the crew will help prevent microsleep and put children to sleep, ie: the dream of every passenger parent.

For example, ŠKODA Arcade can be thought of as Apple Arcade in that games/apps use information from the car (seat occupancy, car position, camera footage, on-board computer data, sensors...), but they can also work with the company's brand, such as car models.

Design & Process

As is the case with hackathons, the synchronization of the designer with the development team stands and falls on speed and organization, which is why we spent the first 45 minutes ideating, debugging the concept and then folding Flows d'usuarithat fell within the realistic scope of the hackathon.

Tip: We improved user flows with post-its on the wall and used them as a mustr that helped us not to deviate.

The very design of UX patterns and visuals had to be kept short, so as not to unnecessarily burden developers with development-intensive elements and interactions, but at the same time did not force us to make painful compromises.

To do this, we were perfectly helped by the request of the organizer to use ŠKODA Flow design system that provided us with almost all the necessary UI elements and color and typographic tokens. Thanks to this, we were able to concentrate on the most important thing: the interaction and progress of the application user.

The car is key accessibility, therefore, we made it a point to ensure that all interface elements had a sufficiently high contrast, both color and size. Overrated, the last thing you want in a car is to frustrate the driver with missclicks or force him to squint at the display with miniature texts, thereby risking an accident. The access of this large simple grid both on the start page and in the detail of the quiz has allowed us to flip the mobile design even for Android Automotive with a minimum of work.

INChatGPT ingestion

If you are driving around Mladá Boleslav, the quiz app will ask you a smart question that relates to the place. We generated the questions using ChatGPT, it was enough to enter the correct question, GPS coordinates, specify the format and the questions just flocked.

Interesting fact: We also used artificial intelligence in the presentation, where we generated illustrations using the Stable Diffusion function to fine-tune the atmosphere.

Connectivity with CarPlay and Android Automotive

The next step was to link the app to CarPlay, with which we have thanks to applications like iRozhlas wealth of experience, so we knew what we were getting into.

In the iOS application that we were developing in the popular SwiftUI, you played a quiz, connected CarPlay and, thanks to the sound synthesis, a voice came from the speakers asking you questions, giving you options and you could answer.

Curiosities: Did you know that the latest cars should be able to recognize which seat the person who is talking is sitting in? We worked with this feature in our concept.

A technological innovation for us was the decision to implement also an application for Android Automotive, we used our latest tech-stack, which we commonly use in our applications (Compose, Lottie). This technology is not commonly encountered by the developer, since it is still a fairly little-widespread system with very strict rules. However, we managed to implement an application in which we showed what the basis of such an entertainment system could look like and hinted at how the white noise function could work.

Gamified environment

The entire entertainment system is rounded up into a gamified environment where you and your fellow riders collect points, so you can race both in the family circle and with the public community.

Implementation immediately

The ŠKODA Arcade can be implemented immediately, without the need to make changes to production logistics, make legislative adjustments or integrate third parties, which was appreciated by the jury consisting of representatives of ŠKODA Auto, ŠKODA DigiLab, Volkswagen, Audi, SEAT, Porsche, Lamborghini, Bentley and Cariad.

Business model

At Futured, we enjoy inventing not only applications that enjoy but also make money for the client, which is why ŠKODA Arcade has a subscription + microtransaction business model.

Why is it financially interesting for the client?

As of 2016 (the first models with CarPlay), ŠKODA has produced around 6,000,000 cars. If 5% of buyers downloaded the ŠKODA Arcade app and subscribed for 1 euro, the customer would earn 3 500 000 euros per year.

Futured team: Martin Sumera, Matěj Semančík, Jakub Marek, Radek Doležal, Jan Pollak, Lukáš Strnadel, Jakub Šenk and Jan Mikulík

‍

We are currently looking for several colleagues. Get in touchSpinal cord and have fun about the possibilities of cooperation: michaela.kormosova@futured.app& +420 739 106 507.