KONE announces an open competition to connect almost anything to an elevator

KONE Corporation, press release, January 21, 2021



  KONE, a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, is launching an open competition, KONE DX Experiments, to identify innovative new ideas on what to connect to KONE DX Class elevators. The mind, a wheelchair, a drone, a smartwatch - what would you connect?

After launching the world's first digital elevator series, KONE DX Class elevators are now being delivered in many markets around the world. Together with the KONE digital platform and secure, open application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow almost anything to be connected to the elevator, KONE's customers can tailor and plug in additional digital services and solutions throughout the entire lifetime of a building.

  KONE now announces a global competition to explore fun, surprising and useful ideas around what can be connected to KONE DX Class elevators. From January 21, KONE DX Experiments will be open for anyone. The winning idea will lead to some real-life experiments being conducted.

"The idea behind DX Experiments is to get more people involved in making people flow easier and making smart buildings more adaptable. It is also about making cities more sustainable and future-proof," says Maciej Kranz, EVP and CTO, KONE. "We would like to encourage our customers, startups, partners, students, architects, developers, builders and tenants to share their ideas and join this open innovation initiative."

  To demonstrate what can be achieved, KONE has already shown what can happen if an elevator can be mind-controlled.

"The sky is the limit! What app, what service, what value would you create? We have only seen the tip of the iceberg of what is possible. From sustainable technologies to transport, from smart buildings to other apps and services, we want to know what you would want to connect, if you could," says Tomio Pihkala, EVP, New Equipment Business, KONE.

  The final day for submitting ideas to the KONE DX Experiments contest is February 19. Details of entry, and terms and conditions can be found here.


For further information, please contact: 
Hanna Rutanen, Director, External Communications, KONE Corporation, tel. +358 41 507 1361, media@kone.com


Read more
Read more about the competition
Read more about KONE DX Class elevators
For images and videos, visit KONE's Material Bank 
Watch the mind-controlled elevator video

Previous press releases are available at https://www.kone.com/en/news-and-insights/releases/ including:
May 7, 2020: KONE DX Class elevators win four prestigious Red Dot Design Awards
November 29, 2019: KONE DX Class elevators take the industry into a new era - the world's first elevator series with built-in digital connectivity as standard


About KONE
At KONE, our mission is to improve the flow of urban life. As a global leader in the elevator and escalator industry, KONE provides elevators, escalators and automatic building doors, as well as solutions for maintenance and modernization to add value to buildings throughout their life cycle. Through more effective People Flow®, we make people's journeys safe, convenient and reliable, in taller, smarter buildings. In 2019, KONE had annual sales of EUR 10 billion, and at the end of the year approximately 60,000 employees. KONE class B shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki Ltd. in Finland.
www.kone.com 

KONE DX Experiments press release