AT&T, BMW AND Tendril Team Up for Hackathon Aimed at the Intersection of Electric Vehicles, the Connected Home and Mobility

Sustainability Developer Event to be part of BMW i BORN ELECTRIC TOUR

New York, NY – November 13, 2012… AT&T, BMW and Tendril® today announced their co-sponsorship of a joint hackathon in New York Nov. 16-18, focusing on app development around the intersection of electric vehicles (EVs), mobility services, sustainability and the connected smart home.

The three-day event will be part of the seven-city BMW i Born Electric Tour, which celebrates the unveiling of the hybrid-electric Concept BMW i8 and the fully-electric Concept BMW i3. The world tour and hackathon will also highlight BMW’s sustainable and holistic approach to technology and lifestyle. 

“BMW i is about far more than just the cars. It allows us to present a holistic view around how energy is viewed and used. A hackathon focused on developing new solutions that connect the smart car, the smart home and smart mobile devices is an exciting venture,” said Dr. Dirk Rossberg, head of the BMW Group Technology Office USA. “By teaming with Tendril and AT&T to open our collective technologies to joint third-party development, we’re ensuring that BMW i Brand vehicles and other products from BMW will seamlessly integrate to the grid and the home, while opening the doors to imaginative new mobile access and control applications. We’re excited about the technical creativity, talent and ingenuity we’ll assemble at this first-of-its kind event focused on app development for electric vehicles, mobile devices and smart homes.”  

The event will utilize the expertise AT&T garnered from its successful hackathon series to help reach the developer community, provide technical know-how and manage the pre-, during and post-event logistics. The AT&T Developer Program, born from the company’s commitment to innovation and third-party development, is the longest running carrier developer program and the one rated best by Evans Data Corporation for the past six years.

“Hackathons engage developers and provide a catalyst for rapid technological innovation, thereby fueling the development of solutions for the challenges of today and tomorrow,” said Alex Donn, senior marketing manager, AT&T Developer Program. “As the adoption of electric vehicles increases, events like the BMW i Born Electric Tour hackathon can help provide the tangible energy-efficient solutions consumers need to manage the increased electrical demands on the home or grid. In addition to the AT&T software development tools, APIs, and open network provided at all of our hackathons, developers will also be able to enjoy the resources and expertise offered by thought leaders in the automotive, consumer energy management and sustainability spaces to build the best app they can in the allotted timeframe.”

This is not the first time that Tendril and BMW have collaborated to demonstrate the power of engaging consumers through a connected home and EV environment. Earlier this year, the two companies partnered on the construction for the demonstration of a smart energy home in Mountain View, Calif., to prepare for the roll-out and integration of the BMW EV. The BMW Technology Office USA is using the smart energy home demonstration facility, powered by Tendril, to help refine electric vehicle charging and monitoring. Tendril’s cloud-based energy management platform, Tendril Connect™, provides the connectivity to integrate the EV charging station into the home, to local utilities and energy service providers, as well as to BMW.

“This event will showcase the future of consumer engagement—providing consumers with real-time energy information through cutting-edge applications at home, on the road or anywhere in between,” said Adrian Tuck, CEO of Tendril. “Together with AT&T and BMW, Tendril is providing world-class developers with the tools they need to build a new marketplace of energy applications and services that will help ease the integration of electric vehicles onto the grid and improve efficiency across all aspects of life. We’re excited to be of this world-class event.”

At the event, Tendril will be opening application programming interfaces (APIs) to its Tendril Connect platform to developers, providing the connectivity, integration and analytics necessary to create engaging apps that will help consumers understand the impact of their EVs and better integrate them into their home and onto the grid. 

Registration for the hackathon is now open. The resulting applications will be reviewed by a panel of judges with thousands of dollars in gift card, service and product prizes being awarded across several categories. One lucky winner may also receive three-months of incubation space at BMW iVentures in New York City.  

 About Tendril®

Tendril is changing the way the world uses energy with its groundbreaking consumer engagement applications and services. Energy providers, product manufacturers, and consumer channel partners use Tendril’s solutions to foster deeper consumer relationships, differentiate their products, achieve business objectives and drive increased value over the lifetime of the consumer.  The company’s flagship application suite, Tendril Energize™ delivers the insight, choice and control utilities and consumers need to meet their energy management goals.  All of its solutions are built on Tendril Connect™, a software platform that integrates an ecosystem of product and service providers, enabling them to engage consumers and seamlessly engage, extend and evolve their offerings. Tendril works with more than 35 energy providers as well as product and service providers and has implemented more than 50 smart energy projects around the world. In 2012, the company opened its platform to developers to support the creation of an open application marketplace.  It now has more than 400 developers registered in the program and more than 20 applications have been built using Tendril Connect.

Tendril is headquartered in Boulder, Colo. with regional offices in Boston, San Francisco, and Melbourne, Australia.  It is venture backed by VantagePoint Capital Partners, Siemens Venture Capital (SVC), Good Energies, RRE Ventures and GE.  For more information, visit www.tendrilinc.com.

BMW Group in America
BMW of North America, LLC has been present in the United States since 1975. Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA, LLC began distributing vehicles in 2003. The BMW Group in the United States has grown to include marketing, sales, and financial service organizations for the BMW brand of motor vehicles, including motorcycles, the MINI brand, and the Rolls-Royce brand of Motor Cars; DesignworksUSA, a strategic design consultancy in California; a technology office in Silicon Valley and various other operations throughout the country. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC in South Carolina is part of BMW Group’s global manufacturing network and is the exclusive manufacturing plant for all X5 and X3 Sports Activity Vehicles and X6 Sports Activity Coupes. The BMW Group sales organization is represented in the U.S. through networks of 338 BMW passenger car and BMW Sports Activity Vehicle centers, 139 BMW motorcycle retailers, 115 MINI passenger car dealers, and 32 Rolls-Royce Motor Car dealers. BMW (US) Holding Corp., the BMW Group’s sales headquarters for North America, is located in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

Information about BMW Group products is available to consumers via the Internet at:  www.bmwgroupna.com.

#      #      #

Journalist note: Information about BMW Group and its products in the USA is available to journalists on-line at www.bmwusanews.com and www.press.bmwna.com.