Porsche Digital

Recently, our colleagues at Porsche Digital Barcelona held an event that explored ways to build performance-oriented teams while at the same time maintaining a high standard of personal wellbeing.   The event was organized in partnership with Iguality, a registered non-profit organization in Barcelona that offers free mental health services to individuals and communities that face marginalization and precarity.   Our team welcomed over 60 people to our Wittywood office, where they opened the conversation about mental health in the workplace and looked into the risks business impacts of stress, anxiety and other mental challenges. Managing Director Scott Francis also held an engaging talk on how to build a culture of diversity and safety.

When it comes to open-source software, the return is always greater than the resources invested! Developers often notice that it requires additional effort to create a software component in a way that makes it usable for other products. But this is only half the truth. If two teams develop the same component, the company invests double the number of required resources. Open-source software, on the other hand, better distributes resources.   What’s more, an active open-source community provides a huge amount of knowledge that’s hard to replicate within a closed environment. Our open-source cookie consent banner project, for example, has already been able to attract a strong community of developers. Only through this community did we learn about an issue that occurred with a specific browser version. While some may argue that publishing open source software helps competitors, let’s be honest – something like a cookie consent banner isn’t going to make a dramatic difference. We’re not sharing software components that could be described as the ‘secret sauce’. Porsche AG will still be Porsche!

Recently, the team at Porsche Digital Barcelona hosted another engaging talk at their Wittywood office, organized in collaboration with TechFems.   Presenting to a group of women from various tech fields like data analysis, UX/UI design and software development, tech recruiter Filipa Vinagre discussed the best tools to leverage job opportunities. She shared expert advice on how to professionally write a CV, present yourself on LinkedIn, and successfully prepare for job interviews.   Thank you to Filipa and TechFems for a fantastic, knowledge-filled evening!

Advancements in data and artificial intelligence are changing the way we work, live and interact with each other. For Porsche, the fusion of these two areas offers numerous opportunities to further increase efficiency and drive innovation. To discuss the impact and applications of this technology, Porsche AG recently hosted the Data & AI Days. We welcomed colleagues from across the company to the event in Zuffenhausen, where we presented our ambitious data and AI strategy, explored applications of AI in other industries, and demonstrated current use cases for the vehicle, customer experience and company processes. Among the expert speakers was our Data Science Manager and AI Topic Lead Dr. Peter Wolf. He explained how we’re using AI at Porsche Digital – with particularly strong support from the team at Porsche Digital China – to further company innovation and developments in China and generate tangible benefits. With this shared knowledge, we’re ready to leverage the power and potential of data and AI!

Recently, Timon Höfer, one of our AI Research Scientists, had the opportunity to present a lecture on generative AI to a number of students at the TUM Campus Heilbronn together with Alice Chan.   Sharing his own personal experiences and insights, Timon not only delved into the fascinating potential offered by generative AI in various domains, but also explained how we’re already actively implementing this technology at Porsche Digital and Porsche AG.   Thank you to Prof. Dr. Chunyang Chen for coordinating the lecture, and to the students for their great interest enthusiasm!

The past weeks have been a particularly busy and exciting time for us, as we hosted two student visits to the innovation labs at Porsche Zuffenhausen.   Together with Porsche AG and our partners 42 Heilbronn and 42 Wolfsburg, we shared insights into our business strategy and gave the students a chance to try out our products and solutions. There was also a fascinating visit to the Sonderwunsch Manufaktur and the Porsche Museum.   Timon Höfer from Porsche Digital presented the Digital Campus initiative and its focus on future-oriented topics like quantum physics and AI, while Aisha Gazyakan and Sebastian Dörner hosted an exclusively developed business game, providing a fun way to develop products as part of a challenge.

In 2020, Porsche AG established the Open Source Office. What followed was an amazing and collaborative journey! Working very closely with the colleagues at the Open Source Office, we’ve continuously searched for and found solutions to use open source software, allowing us to develop and release our products quickly while also fulfilling legal requirements. Besides FOSS compliance, we encourage every employee to actively contribute to FOSS. Our very first open-source project was a cookie consent banner, now downloaded nearly 20,000 times per month. Since then, we’ve gone on to publish code from our research into quantum computing and artificial intelligence, as well as the Porsche Design System. And last year, together with Porsche AG Open Source Office, the website opensource.porsche.com was publicly launched, including the FOSS Movement and guiding documentation on how to contribute to open-source projects on behalf of Porsche. Find out more about the cookie consent banner project from our digital experts Tim Weise and Patrick Böder and what they’ve learned in the past three years: https://lnkd.in/ej2AGzPv

Our Porsche colleagues in the US recently held their first-ever All Digital Day!   At a fantastic event that brought the whole team together, Porsche Digital US and the Porsche Cars North America Strategy and Digital Business team explained more about the platforms and processes that enhance the digital experience for Porsche customers both in and around the car.   In the words of Martin Richenhagen, Senior Manager, Digital Platforms at Porsche Cars North America: “The All Digital Day is about boldly looking at what we have in store to stay ahead of the game when it comes to meeting and exceeding customer expectations for Porsche in the US.”

Recently, our colleagues at Porsche Digital Barcelona hosted the Barcelona edition of WomenHack at their amazing Wittywood office in the 22@ district of the city, where they talked about opportunities at Porsche Digital with some of the most brilliant women in the field of tech. WomenHack is a network that promotes and encourages women in tech through events, job adverts and reviews. The recruitment events aim to connect top female engineers, designers and product managers with opportunities at diversity-first companies. Find out more about WomenHack: https://womenhack.com/

Our colleagues at Porsche Digital Croatia recently took to the TVZ Career Day, an event organized by the Zagreb University of Applied Sciences.   Throughout the day, the team connected with loads of students – all eager to hear more about life at Porsche Digital, as well as our solutions and job vacancies. There was also a special challenge, and the lucky winner scored a ride in one of our cars!   The team had a fantastic time meeting some true Porsche fans who share our drive and our interests. A big thank you to everyone who stopped by to chat with us, and to the organizers for arranging such a incredible event. We can’t wait until next time!