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Dear members,
571 start-ups, aged of roughly 3 years each, beyond 7 thousand persons employed in 28 countries. These are some of the numbers which help to explain the magnitude of the success of the 2nd edition of the European Startup Prize. An initiative sponsored by the EU with the aim of supporting and promoting those European start-ups which are breaking new grounds in fields like urban mobility, data analytics, autonomous vehicles, logistics and supply chain, infrastructure and energy, and aerospace.
On 11th April 2019, in presence of HSH Prince Albert II de Monaco, 10 of the half a thousand candidates, have been awarded with the prestigious prize, and this will give them access to an all-expenses paid tour of five European tech capitals to meet potential customers, investors, business accelerators and local partners throughout 2019. In addition to this tour, the first four Gold Award winners will also receive specific entrepreneurial, business and legal mentoring from Boston Consulting Group and other legal and corporate partners to help grow their operations in Europe and beyond.
For the second consecutive year, CECRA has strongly supported this initiative, being convinced that automotive dealers and repairers are and will have to be even more in the future the protagonists of innovation in the world of mobility.
Over the past years CECRA has been pleading for equal access to in-vehicle-generated data as a key enabler of innovation in the automotive repair and retail industry. In-vehicle-generated data is the lifeblood of an innovative vehicle-related service, in that it allows the repair operators to perform tasks such as remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance. But for the time being the access to this data is artificially limited by the in-vehicle telematics systems installed by the vehicle manufacturers. For the past years CECRA has been speaking loudly in favour of a fairer access to this in-vehicle data. And, as a result of this pressure, the European Parliament has repeatedly stated the need to adopt a robust legislative framework enabling such a fair access to all trusted operators who are ready to offer high-added value services to the European consumers.
In such an important day for the European mobility-related innovation, we believe it was important to firmly re-state our message: the EU should urgently adopt a regulatory framework ensuring direct, unmonitored and non-discriminatory access to in-vehicle data for third parties. This would work as a powerful enabler for innovation and competition in the world of mobility.
European automotive dealers and repairers have a long tradition of technical innovation when it comes to improving the value proposition to their customers, and, with its claims, CECRA is simply trying to make sure that this precious aptitude to innovation is duly incentivised.
Yours sincerely,
Jean-Charles Herrenschmidt
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