German Autolabs Adds Former COO of TomTom, Clive Millington to the Team

Clive Millington is now a part of the  Industry Advisory Board and Strengthens Management Team with Talent from Fitbit and Navdy

Berlin, 31st May 2018: German Autolabs, creators of Chris, the world’s first digital assistant for drivers, is pleased to announce that Clive Millington, the former COO of TomTom and a highly experienced expert in the field of B2C mobility hardware, is joining its industry advisory board. Clive will support German Autolabs’ ambitious goal of bringing Chris to every car with the launch scheduled for September 2018.

Clive Millington holds an MBA and has dedicated his career to the consumer electronics and technology sectors, building category leading products, high-performance teams, and scaling up businesses. Having shipped over 100 million consumer electronic devices, he has extensive experience in product development, hardware manufacturing, global supply chain management, logistics, distribution and sales management; all of which will be available for the German Autolabs team to draw from.

Clive comments: “I’m really excited to be helping the German Autolabs team in their quest to introduce Chris to the market this year. Chris is an incredibly useful driving assistant being introduced during a period where European law around smartphone usage in the car is getting ever stricter. By using a combination of voice and gesture control, Chris enables drivers to keep their eyes on the road whilst staying connected to their smartphone, and can be used in any car.”

Holger Weiss, CEO of German Autolabs stated: “With our digital co-driver Chris we are building a retrofit device to give every car access to a safe and intuitive voice assistant. Clive Millington is a specialist in the field of consumer electronics for automotive. His knowledge and wealth of experience will be a huge benefit for us – especially now as we get close to shipping the product this summer.”

German Autolabs is also delighted to anounce it is bringing two senior tech managers from Silicon Valley to Berlin. Heiko Panther (former Fitbit and Apple) has been appointed as Head of Device Engineering and will be responsible for the embedded development of German Autolabs’ technically demanding hardware device, Chris. Heiko Panther worked for many years in Silicon Valley as Director of Firmware Engineering at Fitbit. He also was a member of the iPhone engineering team at Apple.

Furthermore, by adding Martin Kropat, German Autolabs expands its knowledge in the field of contract manufacturing, logistics and sourcing. Martin Kropat also worked for many years in Silicon Valley, for both Navdy and Qualcomm. As the new Head of Operations he will be responsible for the world delivery chain of Chris.

Patrick Weissert, COO and Head of Product of German Autolabs comments: “Heiko’s and Martin’s enormous consumer product experience will no doubt be a huge asset for us in building Chris. In addition to this, I’m very happy to attract such successful experts from Silicon Valley to work with us in Berlin. This is a big step for German Autolabs and a very good sign for Berlin, as the city becomes one of the most important tech hubs in Europe.” 

About German Autolabs:

German Autolabs is building a digital assistant for drivers, which will make access to apps and services while on the road safer and more convenient. The Berlin-based startup utilizes the latest voice and gesture control technology, alongside Artificial Intelligence. The combination of an interoperable, scalable software platform for cognitive assistance with a retrofit hardware device democratizes the latest connected car technology – making it accessible to everyone. Founders Holger G. Weiss (former CEO, Aupeo) and Patrick Weissert (former Director Consumer, HERE) rely on an interdisciplinary team of experts in hardware and software development. For more information please visit germanautolabs.com.