AirShip Technologies Group

Don't Tell Us We Can't Change The World!

Press Releases               

AirShipTG joins forces with Delorean One to help construct the first rendition of Track Sphere drive trains and drive-by-wire guidance systems constructed for a Delorean. 

 

 Ben Berry served as key note for TRIZCON at ALTSHULLER INSTITUTE FOR TRIZ STUDIES on "Competitive Innovation Engineering"  - as he presented Open Technology Manufacturing for the Automotive X PRIZE, 13-15 April 2008 Kent State University in Kent, Ohio.  The experimental workshop on the US$10million Automotive X PRIZE at the Altshuller Institute TRIZCON2008 started Sunday morning with delegates from Germany, Israel, Ireland, UK, Korea, Taiwan, and multiple parts of the US;  from the electronics, automotive, aerospace, control systems and textile industries, tire industry; from universities, private industry, and consulting.   The X-Prize will go to the vehicle that can demonstrate 100 miles per gallon or the equivalent in alternative fuels and able to drive at 100 miles/hour, in a production-ready vehicle.

 

Ben Berry is the CEO of the AirShip Technologies Group, one of 84 teams competing for the prize.   ATG is using a combination of well-known and experimental technologies, and an aggressive Open Technology organizational method for design and production.   Prof. Tim Schweitzer from Luther College recruited Ben to be a keynote speaker for the conference, then Tim and Ellen Domb took advantage of Ben’s expertise and attendance at the meeting to organize the workshop—TRIZ practitioners had 2 hours to learn about the problems that the AirShip team has worked on, and 5 hours to develop ideas for alternative approaches.  Ben will take those ideas back to the team to accelerate the development of AirShipTG's project as it moves from the AirShip concept vehicle to the Delorean ATG production car (and he has recruited some of the workshop participants to join the team, too!)

 

Video coverage of the Announcement Press Conference at the New York Auto Show: Part One; Part Two; Part Three

 

ANNOUNCEMENT COVERAGE IN THE MEDIA

Our March 20th announcement received a lot of media attention, including a feature on the prize from Rockefeller Plaza on NBC’s Today Show. Here are just a few highlights:

 

WIRED MAGAZINE: Wired Issue 16.01      Cars 2.0  :  Future Transport                     1 Gallon of Gas, 100 Miles — $10 Million: The Race to Build the Supergreen Car

Keynote Speaker for “Open Source in Government and Open Technology Use Case Development”  Presentation: Open Source - From Collaboration to Innovation, LinuxWorld Open Solutions Tokyo, Japan Conference 2007, (Web presence) September 27-28, 2007.

 AirShip Technologies Group Automotive X-Prize Launch.  Using an Open Technology Innovation Model, (OTI), the AirShip vehicle takes concepts from the open source development community and applies them to manufacturing to compete in the Automotive X-Prize competition.  Dispersed teams that share a common vision collaborate to create a solution that is better than the sum of its parts. The development of this ground transit vehicle is the first implementation of the OTI model and may be used for future product development.  September 1, 2007.

Automotive X PRIZE Updates.......

Automotive X PRIZE is excited to announce that they will be officially announcing the Automotive X PRIZE (AXP) at the New York International Auto Show (NYIAS) on March 20. All paid and accepted Letter of Intent (LOI) signers are invited to join us for this  event, as well as to speak with the press and public throughout the duration of the show (March 19-30, 2008).  During the coming weeks, we will be communicating more details about this event and other aspects of the Automotive X PRIZE announcement.  

 

AXP PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT:  The announcement event will take place on March 20 at a time yet to be determined. We anticipate having some high profile supporters join us at the event, which will take place in a proscribed time by the New York International Auto Show. We expect to receive significant international media coverage from our presence at NYIAS. Many major outlets have been waiting for the moment when the prize is “real” and have done their due diligence on the AXP. Now is the time when they are looking to see what the AXP teams have planned. Our desire is to focus the spotlight on the competitor teams and their efforts to win this unprecedented competition.

 

In addition to high media representation, NYIAS boasts over one million public attendees each year. This provides the perfect opportunity for teams to introduce their projects to the public over the entire duration of the show. We also hope to announce at least one Host City for the stage races. 

 

PRESS PREVIEW VS. PUBLIC DAYS:  The NYIAS press preview days occur on March 19 and 20. Because of the brevity (20 minutes) of the timeslot we will have for our public announcement there will be no formal LOI team presentation slots scheduled during the press preview days.  nstead, we are asking that any team attending the show provide us with their hotel and mobile contact information so that we can reach you if a media representative is interested in getting in touch with you during that time.  The public days occur from March 21 through 30, with the busiest time being the final weekend (the 29th and 30th). Teams may schedule “AXP booth time” for focused presentations to and discussion with the public and media during the public days that we will include in our schedule of events to be released to the press and public.

  

EXHIBIT:  The primary focus of the AXP NYIAS exhibit floor space will be dedicated to LOI team vehicles. We will use this opportunity to give the press and the public their first close-up look at some of the LOI vehicles that may compete. The event production team will let us know about placement availability for scale models soon. However, we anticipate that there will be very limited space, due to the requirements of the full size vehicles.

 

TEAM PRESENTATIONS:  As many of you know, we produced a LOI team PowerPoint presentation for the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. This production allowed participating teams to provide information to both the media and the public. Viewing the PowerPoint presentation used in Detroit will give you a good idea of what will be produced for the teams in New York.  In the coming days, we will again be asking teams to provide us with updated materials that can be utilized in the New York announcement and exhibit presentations. Please note that one of the most important assets will be high quality video of teams and vehicles. If you have video that you are willing to share, please let us know as soon as possible.

 

LOI TEAM BRIEFING:  We are working to set up a conference call and briefing for all of the LOI teams prior to the announcement date, March 20. This call will provide an overview of what to expect in the coming months and will help to answer questions regarding the release of the final Competition Guidelines, and the Master Team Agreement, as well as provide insight into registration process, time line and stage races.

 

PRESS RELEASES:  In addition to X PRIZE Foundation press releases regarding the public announcement and the announcement of the Title Sponsor of the competition we will also work with interested teams to produce and service releases to local media outlets on your behalf. Please let us know if you would like to receive support with your press initiatives leading up to the announcement date.

 

CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION OF SUPPORT:  Last, but certainly not least, we wanted to share some more good news with you in closing. On Wednesday, February 6, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in support of the Automotive X PRIZE and the X PRIZE Foundation (full text of the related congressional record and resolution).  This endorsement follows other recent letters of support including San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Houston Mayor Bill White, Michigan Governor Jenifer Granholm and the Sierra Club.  These supporters join an already impressive and diverse list of supporters which we are confident will grow before and after our public announcement.

 

Thanks to everyone for your continued excitement (and patience) as we forge through the details of the public announcement of the competition. Please feel free to contact us with any comments or concerns. Expect to hear a lot from us in the coming weeks!

 

Best,

The Automotive X PRIZE Team (Neal Anderson, Bethann Buddenbaum, Don Foley, Cristin Lindsay, and John Shore)

 

 

Per Automotive X-Prize......10/30/2007

 

Here is an update on the status of the Automotive X PRIZE (AXP). We remain excited about and appreciative of your involvement with our efforts.

 

PRIZE LAUNCH & FUNDRAISING STATUS

We continue to make steady progress toward launching the competition, and we plan to do so early in 2008. We are considering a number of venues for our prize launch, including auto shows and other independent, high-profile venues. 

 

We continue our fundraising efforts which are taking longer than expected. We are still seeking a visionary title sponsor or donor to back a minimum $10MM USD prize purse. We hope to conclude this search soon, and will not launch the competition formally until that prize purse is in place.

 

PRIZE RULES 

In the interim, we continue to refine the guidelines for the competition. We have just published a Competition Guidelines Revision Topics document that summarizes the areas of the Draft Competition Guidelines that we plan to revise, reconsider or broaden. We will convene working groups to discuss these topics and push towards final prize rules. As always, we welcome your comments and questions about the proposed revisions.

 

HOST CITIES

We have begun early outreach to U.S. cities to secure sites for the AXP Qualifying Race in 2009 and the AXP Grand Prize Final Race in 2010. These host cities will be the cornerstone of our stage race events, providing critical infrastructure, resources and promotion to the competition. We have had early conversations with Seattle, Oakland, St. Louis, San Diego, Chicago, Austin, New York, and other cities.

 

If you have ideas about other cities particularly well-suited to becoming an AXP Host City, especially if you have useful contacts in those cities that you would be willing to introduce us to, please reach out to us as we welcome your input.

 

RECENT MEDIA COVERAGE

We continue to receive positive coverage of the Automotive X PRIZE in blogs and media, and are seeing increasing interest from the media in our Letter of Intent teams. Some highlights of our recent coverage include: