CityMakers is an Open Innovation program reinventing urban mobility. The initiative supports the collaboration between diverse actors: corporates, collectivities, startups, SMB, researchers. It enables public-private partnerships to work towards resolving the key challenges of urban mobility with the support of our partners: Europcar Mobility Group, Groupe Renault, MAIF, Nissan, RCI Bank and Services (involving its startups Karhoo, Marcel and Yuso), Shell and the City of Paris.
“To support the new uses of its customers, RCI Bank and Services has chosen to develop an external ecosystem in an open innovation approach. One of the strengths of the CityMakers program is the diversity of partners involved and the close collaboration with the city of Paris. As a large group, we benefit from the agility of startups, and conversely they benefit from our expertise in the automotive sector and services. By participating once again in the CityMakers program, our goal is to imagine and test together the mobility solutions of tomorrow." Cyrille Foillard, Chief Innovation Officer, RCI Bank and Services
The partners identified six challenges to be addressed during Season 2:
- How might we encourage Parisians to feel comfortable using alternative transportation options to public transit and individual cars on a daily basis? With MAIF, Europcar Mobility Group, RCI Bank and Services, the City of Paris
- How might we improve mobility policy based on the analysis of vehicle traffic in the city? With Karhoo (RCI Bank and Services), the City of Paris, Europcar Mobility Group, Shell
- How might we guarantee access to electronic car charging stations? With Yuso (RCI Bank and Services), the City of Paris
- How might we rate the value of dynamic charging as an alternative to charging points? With Renault, Shell
- How can we provide a smooth charging experience so that VTC drivers can better optimize their daily work? With Marcel (RCI Bank and Services), Renault, Shell, Europcar Mobility Group
- How might we help public transit users in poorly served areas optimise their everyday home/office journeys with an on-demand service? With Shell
Call for applications
The teams are looking for startups, researchers and companies to share their expertise and technologies, working together to develop solutions to the challenges. Applications to contribute to the projects can be made until August 27th, 2018 on citymakers.io . The candidates will be selected on September the 10th and will then join the challenge teams.
7 months to understand the users’ needs and design, prototype and test solutions
For each challenge, the teams will first work to understand users’ constraints, obstacles and needs in regards to mobility in Ile-de-France. Based on this research, they will imagine the solutions which best answer the users’ needs while being economically and technically viable. The final results could be applications, products, services, new business models or other outputs. The teams will prototype and test the solutions to improve them.
Find out more: https://citymakers.io/
