Airbus Group and Local Motors Partnership enters Phase II

Airbus Group and Local Motors Inc. announced today the launch of the Phase II of their partnership.

This new phase will focus on building the Airbus Drone Services Platform (ADSP). The ADSP is a digital distribution platform for drone-based apps and services.

Phase II is a continuation of the companies’ joint work together, which commenced in April 2016 and resulted in the highly successful “Airbus Cargo Drone Challenge”, a co-creation competition for the next generation of commercial drones. With 425 entries, the challenge, which ended in July, was the most successful Local Motors Challenge ever conducted, and the top selected projects will now be reviewed before potentially becoming part of an industrial programme.

“Phase I of our partnership demonstrated to Airbus the power of community-based creation and open innovation,” said John B. Rogers, Jr., Local Motors CEO and co-founder. “Phase II of our work together will now demonstrate Airbus’ commitment to the community. The results will be nothing short of game changing and I could not be happier to continue our journey into the world of UAV, built on an open system, with Airbus.”

“We are excited to expand our experience with co-creation and the community to the realm of software and services.” said Jana Rosenmann, Head of UAS (Unmanned Aerial Systems) with Airbus Group. “We are optimistic that Phase II of the project will lead to challenging prevailing technologies and business models in the world of drone services”.