- Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy and Catalan Government President Carles Puigdemont, among other personalities, visit the SEAT stand
- The company makes progress in its connectivity ecosystem with projects and agreements such as Waze and Saba
- SEAT brings the technology presented at the Mobile World Congress closer to the public and offers them the chance to try it out at Automobile Barcelona
Barcelona, 12/05/2017. – Several political figures, headed by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, showed great interest in gaining first-hand knowledge of the SEAT novelties at Automobile Barcelona. In addition to Rajoy, other politicians stopping to visit the company stand included Catalan Government President Carles Puigdemont; Energy minister Álvaro Nadal, and Deputy Mayor of Barcelona Jaume Collboni.
At Automobile Barcelona, SEAT is giving the public a close look at the developments in connected car that the company announced at the recent edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC), giving SEAT the opportunity to take its cutting-edge technologies from a professional exhibition to the general public at a popular event such as the Barcelona motorshow. The company is also using the motorshow platform to continue promoting its connectivity ecosystem.
The authorities expressed interest in the developments by the brand in terms of product and connectivity. In addition to getting a close look at the vehicles exhibited by SEAT at the motorshow, the Ateca FR, the new Ibiza and the new Leon Cupra, they also tried out the simulator that shows what the future of driving will be like as well as a 4D system of augmented reality. Furthermore, they were able to admire the design exercise that pays tribute to the SEAT 600 that the company has created to celebrate the 60th anniversary of this iconic model, and a Ducati motorcycle and the King’s Cup trophy on display in the stand.
Among others, SEAT announced a project with the new Waze app for Android Auto, which Google intends to launch into beta in the next few weeks. The app will be available in all SEAT vehicles equipped with Full Link, and visitors to the motorshow can see it for the first time at the SEAT stand.
In addition, the brand also signed an agreement with Saba to provide new parking related services to the vehicle mobility ecosystem. Among others, the partners will be working on a mobile parking reservation and payment system, and will be studying services associated with the time that vehicles remain stationary, such as shopping deliveries to the car or refuelling.
Connected Hub
SEAT was also present in the Connected Hub, a dedicated space for new solutions in the area of connectivity, smart mobility and new business trends and models, where the Demo Day was held for the five participating start-ups in the SEAT Accelerator by Conector acceleration programme presented their projects to investors and experts and other companies. The Demo Day marks the end of the five-month stage where the startups Boonder, GOI, Innroute, Open.Car and Kiwicar benefitted from mentors to develop their contact network, with support from SEAT, to consolidate their business models and define their future challenges related with the market, product, turnover trends or investment needs, among others.
This space also hosted an Industry 4.0 discussion panel, where experts from different carmakers with production in Spain explained the progress their factories are making in digitalisation. Francisco Requena, head of Innovation and Smart Factory participated on behalf of SEAT. He detailed how the company is automating and digitising the Martorell factory to adapt it to Industry 4.0.
