It’s been an intense and exciting first 24 hours for Eloy in the Ordnance Survey Map and Hack.
To those not following the event, several teams, including developers, data scientists, and designers, have have been creating innovative solutions using the suite of OS APIs (application programming interfaces) in a virtual hackathon. The challenge is to gather all the data OS have available and build new solutions quickly that are creative, impactful, and potentially commercial in just 2 days.
As Eloy has a mobile application that has in-built sat nav, voice control, and Apple CarPlay integration (we’re just focusing on Apple iOS for this hackathon) it made sense for Eloy to focus on a real EV charging journey that is in the vehicle.
Step 1
The filming rig – Go Pro cameras mounted in Damian’s car
Step 2
The Eloy team were considering which OS APIs would be useful in the allotted time frame. Whilst Eloy has a mobile application for use in the vehicle, we also have a substantial back-end for processing data and building experiences. Much of our other work has been innovating in IVI, which stands for in-vehicle information.
Out backend map (codenamed Skynet) showing locations of EV charging stations
Step 3
We needed to quickly spin up an Eloy sub-feature that could be modified to display EV-related information (specific IVI to charging) and edit how any EV recommendations could be displayed to the driver whilst tin the car. The easiest short term option without an app update was to run a script that overrides my own stored favourite destinations
List of EV charging stations displayed via CarPlay
Step 4
We’re now in a mad rush to get the whole solution working, presented, and recorded but are confident of getting a video together later today.
Our video is in the editing room.
