Cars are no longer just forms of transportation. From the ability to have hands-free conversations through interior speakers to diagnostic displays that enable you to see the health of your vehicle to autonomous driving, they’re quickly becoming a technology platform where remarkable innovations are happening.
While the exterior of a car usually gets all the attention, interiors are getting more sophisticated as they become tightly integrated with our everyday lives.
BMW, one of the top auto manufacturers in the world, recently launched a public innovation challenge to surface new ideas for interior features for its compact class cars. From the BMW 1 Series and 2 Series to BMW X1 and BMW X2, this particular line of cars blends a stylish and sporty design with the driving performance customers have come to expect from the company headquartered in Munich, Germany.
The public challenge, in which anyone can participate, was launched on April 23rd and ends on June 8th. It aims to leverage the creativity and imagination of BMW and car enthusiasts around the world to dream up new possibilities.
We caught up with Lisa-Kristina Wimbauer from the Department Product Management Compact Class of the BMW Group to learn more about the innovation challenge and the ultimate goal for the company. She explained that the purpose of the challenge is to find new ways to bring joy by smart and convenient interior features for the BMW compact class cars.
With all the technological advances that are happening, there are so many ways to make the experience of being in an automobile better – from safety to productivity to entertainment. When it comes to surfacing these opportunities, who better to ask than car enthusiasts and people who drive frequently?
What is the goal of the innovation challenge?
The aim is to share ideas on interior features for the BMW compact class cars and to collaborate on the submitted ideas. All participants have the unique chance to exchange their thoughts with international participants by writing comments and by building teams. Finally, BMW will select three winning ideas from the innovation challenge.
The individuals, or teams, that submitted the winning ideas will have the unique opportunity to be part of an innovation workshop to develop their ideas further.
The workshop will be followed by an opportunity to showcase a prototype of their idea and pitch it directly to the BMW Innovation Challenge Team.
That’s not all.
All three winners will get a chance to experience the all-new BMW X2!
Final thoughts
At Planview IdeaPlace, we believe great ideas can come from anyone, anywhere, at any time.
One look at BMW’s innovation challenge and you’ll see that first hand.
As of this writing, the innovation challenge has generated 154 ideas submitted by people from all over the world with plenty of collaboration happening amongst community members with over 800 comments.
You never know where, or from whom, your next transformative idea will come from. BMW, like many other leading companies, fundamentally understands that to compete today and far into the future, you have to tap into the collective intelligence of many rather than a few.
Check out BMW’s live public innovation challenge here.
