Bengaluru, April 16, 2024: Ather Energy, an electric 2W vehicle manufacturer, in collaboration with Infineon and Elektrobit, recently wrapped up its ByteBattles Firmware Development Hackathon, a coding competition where participants were asked to program a set of vehicle features. Employing the ease of use of Ather’s Application Software Development Kit (ASDK), participants from both industry and academia could implement innovative features on Ather scooters in just one day. ASDK is the result of eight years of in-house development efforts towards the creation of a platform tailored for application software developers, enabling the design of inventive functionalities for electric vehicles, plans on open sourcing it.
For the competition, sixty-five participants from esteemed institutions such as IIT Madras, SRM, MKSSS Cummins College, and industry giants like Royal Enfield, Continental Automotive Components India Pvt Ltd, Chara Technologies, The Energy Company and Nunam Technologies were a part of the hackathon.
Swapnil Jain, Co-founder & CTO of Ather Energy said, "The automotive industry is still in its early stages of vehicle software development with its own set of challenges, as well as opportunities for innovation and collaboration. Platforms such as ASDK are designed to accelerate software development and propel advancements in electric mobility. Just as Android abstracted software from hardware, ASDK democratizes firmware development for electric vehicles, significantly reducing development time while maintaining quality. With Byte Battles we wanted to eliminate obstacles to creativity and cultivate a community of developers committed to crafting outstanding user experiences."
In addition to showcasing the transformative potential of middleware like Ather's Software Development Kit in expediting firmware development, the hackathon also highlighted its user-friendly nature and adaptability.
Sai Sridhar, Associate Director at Elektrobit said, “Today’s digitally native EVs have disrupted the way software is imagined. They have created a compelling need for a structured, modular, and scalable ‘middleware software platform’ that has high performance, is nimble, affordable and easily applicable. This is considered mandatory to ensure that safe and secure softwares can be easily maintained and upgraded over the life of the vehicle.”
The hackathon served as a stage for participants to demonstrate their skills and fostered collaboration and knowledge exchange within the automotive software development community. Ather believes that events of this nature are instrumental in shaping the future of electric vehicles.
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