Forgetting where you parked your car is an embarrassing problem that’s about to become a thing of the past.
For almost two months, Moroccan developers have been building apps for the homegrown Moroccan Smart Car during the Maroc ScreenDy Cup 2015.
Officially launched on October 1, 2015, this competition aimed to incubate and accelerate innovation on Moroccan connected cars, Wamda reports.
The cup was launched to encourage Moroccan startups and developers to help build the app marketplace for the local connected car, launched by Moroccan Chevrolet and Opel distributor CFAO Motors and local geo-localization and mapping startup MagNav in March.
ScreenDy is a Moroccan platform that recently moved to Silicon Valley and allows developers to create Android iOS mobile applications without writing one single line of code.
The locally developed car has an 8-inch full HD touchscreen that runs on Android 4.4, is connected to the Internet via wifi or a 3G dongle, and comes with voice GPS navigation, music streaming and the ability to listen to the radio via a semi-digital format called RDS, and a reversible rearview camera.
It is meant to be an alternative to the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay operating systems which, according to the project owners, do not meet the needs of drivers in developing countries in general, and in Morocco in particular.
In fact, a number of the applications used by the two foreign systems are either not usable or unavailable in Morocco. Moreover, few of those apps are free and the platforms are closed to developers.
The Moroccan car software platform is free of charge and open for developers.
