Had a very interesting day at the Motor Bella event on Tuesday. After a “Covid friendly” breakfast at the hotel and a short drive, we got to the event. Walking in, the first thing we saw was a huge dirt track with a giant hill that they would take you for Jeep rides. Then hearing the roar of a 700 plus horsepower TRX Ram trucks screaming down the back stretch, I knew this was not going to be a “typical” show event”.
The event was full of interesting presentations including the first one I attended “EVolution at the Speed of Thought” including a presentation by our own Rick Sturgeon the Senior Director for Transportation and Mobility. I recorded the presentation to share however when I reviewed it, there was no audio “Arrggg!” I thought it was just the Mic battery so I replaced it and tested it and it worked…for a few minutes anyway.
The day moved on walking through the supplier tent seeing lots of new technology and hearing people talk all the “Buzz” in the industry plus how universities are teaching these new technologies with hands on projects. When I was in school we used pencils and built things with hammers and nailsJ. The Dassault Systems booth highlighted several areas of Autonomous vehicle concepts including the AV SIM partnership and other very relevant new technologies.
It was also interesting walking around outside seeing the new cars from all the manufacturers. Some of the displays were incredible. Again, these displays could not have been built in your typical trade show building. Walking further there were race cars giving rides on a racetrack, WOW. Kudos to the Motor Bella team for making Covid lemons into wonderful lemonade.
Next on my agenda was the Concept Car awards show. I admit sometimes these presentations can be the least exciting yawn, can’t keep my eyes open but this was not the case. Talking to people before with delicious appetizers then sitting down to short sweet presentations of dynamic content was a joy. John McElroy moderated the event and did a great job. The presentation of the awards included four awards including
- Best Concept Vehicle – sponsored and presented by Dassault Systèmes --- Phil Borchard representing DS, and Mike Simcoe, Design Chief at GM representing EyesOn Design Judges
- Innovative use of Color, Graphics or Materials
- Best Designed Interior
- Best New production Vehicle
The Polestar Precept won the first three awards at EyesOn Design: The Ford Bronco won the best new production vehicle. It was really cool to see they brought up the whole design team and the associated people on stage.
GianPaulo Canton accepted the awards for the Polestar Precept and gave a really nice interview with Phil Borchard afterwards. Unfortunately as with the other presentations I recorded, my Mic did not work. Live and learn bring back-ups of everything and have a backups of your backup.
Lastly, during the presentations the skys opened up and it started to rain in biblical proportions. I was ready to see if I could grab one of those big jeeps just to drive out of the flooded parking lot. Fortunately they did have cocktails and deserts to wait it out a bit. Still got wet but it was very enjoyable.
The Wednesday session was cancelled because of the flooding but I hope it does not put a dampener
(no pun intended) on doing this show again next year.
I’ll be looking forward to it.
