Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Agriculture and Forestry Minister Dr. Bekir Pakdemirli, Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, TOGG Chairman Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, Meteorology General Manager Volkan Mutlu Coşkun and TOGG CEO M. Gürcan Karakaş attended the signing ceremony held in Informatics Valley.

Speaking at the ceremony, TOBB President and TOGG Chairman Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Turkey is less than 2 years away from the nearly century-old dream of a domestic automobile and said that the superstructure of the Gemlik plant will be completed in a short time.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that despite the outbreak, the work is carried out without slowing down and said that they are approaching the day when the first vehicle will come off the band day by day.

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that when designing the business model at TOGG, the most valuable source of the 21^st century and possibly the coming centuries put data and data processing at the center, and continued:

“TOGG will process any data that can be made sense of, as the future requires, and use it to improve its technology and ecosystem. Today we are actually putting forward a concrete example of this. The data produced by this protocol with our General Directorate of Meteorology will be shared mutually. Meteorology will transmit the warnings and data it collects instantaneously from all corners of the country to TOGG. Smart and connected TOGG vehicles will also instantly transfer the data produced through their sensors to MGM. There will be a useful ecosystem here.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that thanks to cooperation, TOGG will present the data it receives to its users as comfort and security and improve the user experience, and at the same time, TOGG vehicles will actually be a mobile meteorological observation system.

- Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank

Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank said that TOGG, one of the parties of the vision to make Turkey the producer of critical technologies, not a target market, has added great excitement to Turkey.

Emphasizing that Turkey is now growing its steps to become a member of a top league in technology production in all areas, Varank said, “We are determined to keep Turkey's course in R&D and innovation. Big and visionary projects such as TOGG also nurture and grow our country's technology ecosystem. From software to mechanical parts, TOGG is in close cooperation with domestic suppliers who will be involved in the production process. Even startups that have the ability to be the first in the world in terms of their work contributing to this process.”

Reminding that the TOGG project is more of a smart life technology than a car, Varank said, “It also opens the door to all kinds of new ideas and initiatives in the field of innovation. In this sense, TOGG also leads the mobility ecosystem in Turkey. Today, together with our Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, we are signing a concrete cooperation. With today's protocol, it is possible to share meteorological data between TOGG and our General Directorate of Meteorology. We need to underline that these signatures have much more important meanings than pure meteorological information sharing.  The TOGG-Meteorology cooperation will be a pioneer step in our mobility ecosystem.”

Minister Varank stated that with the signed protocol, TOGG will increase the comfort and safety of Turkey's car by using the data of the General Directorate of Meteorology, and said that the data will not only inform the driver, but also that in-car applications will optimize itself thanks to artificial intelligence technology.

- Minister Pakdemirli

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli announced that MGM data will be transmitted instantly to TOGG vehicles along the route.

Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Pakdemirli stated that Turkey has made a great leap forward in defense industry, automotive, agriculture and industry in the last 18 years.

Pakdemirli stated that an e-vehicle is spoken when it comes to TOGG, “Turkey has been able to take the necessary initiative in an area where there are no world giants. In the 21^st century, a journey has been embarked on in the technological field that is worthy of our country.”

Pakdemirli, stating that the eco-friendly vehicle is not just a car but a mobile computer, “As the Ministry, we thought, 'What contribution can we make here. We told TOGG that we can take a serious initiative on the meteorological side and make a contribution in this area. The talks that started recently resulted in this cooperation.”

Referring to the contributions of the signed protocol to the vehicle and the driver, Pakdemirli said: “From meteorological information such as icing, rain in your place to route proposals and the operation of headlights, windshield wipers, air conditioning, it will actually help the vehicle in a very considerable manner. However, we expect it to have a result that will increase the comfort of the person driving the vehicle. For example, let's say we go from Kocaeli to Şanlıurfa. We need to prepare our suitcase according to Şanlıurfa's weather. We'll be in the vehicle with information about it. Our possible route will pass through 5 different regions and 9 provinces. According to the weather, it will give us information such as 'don't go this way, this route is more convenient, there is snow over there'.”

Pakdemirli said that even suggestions about what the person should wear will be presented to the user.

Pakdemirli, while addressing the story of the domestic vehicle, said that light was seen at the end of the tunnel and that he, as a potential TOGG customer candidate, excitedly expected to see the vehicle on the roads.

Stating that Turkey has taken an important initiative with TOGG in an area where the world giants are not yet present, Pakdemirli thanked everyone who contributed to the domestic vehicle.

- Gürcan Karakaş

TOGG Senior Manager (CEO) Gürcan Karakaş said in his presentation at the meeting that they identified TOGG as “More than a car” and Gemlik Facilities as “More than a factory”.

Karakaş stated that they are on their way to create a mobility ecosystem around the TOGG core at every opportunity, and that his agreement with the General Directorate of Meteorology is one of the important steps towards this goal.

Karakaş, noting that the instantaneous data obtained by the General Directorate of Meteorology through the scientific studies of the General Directorate of Meteorology will become information that offers safety and comfort for TOGG users, said, “First of all, the importance of instantaneous and sensitive information is very important. This has benefits for both the driver and the vehicle. It is important for security that it has the most sensitive data where it is instantly located, especially the proposed routes beyond the information along the target route,” he said.

Karakaş noted: “For example, instantaneous and local nature events such as rain, snow, fog or flooding can be immediately reported to the vehicle and driver and measures can be taken to improve driving and road safety, such as route changes, speed regulations. Or, meteorological information from TOGG vehicles on the move can be transmitted instantly to those who live in or will go to that region and be able to be negatively affected by climatic changes. TOGG, which allows suppliers to transform and startups to be included in the mobility ecosystem, is also a pioneer in our country in transforming data into comfort and security.”

- General Manager of Meteorology Coşkun

Meteorology Director General Volkan Mutlu Coşkun said that they aim to create added value with the information they will provide to the smart living platform of the domestic car and that they monitor the atmosphere 24 hours a day through 2,047 automated meteorological observation stations spread throughout the country.

“Our citizens will be able to instantly see information about air temperature, wind direction, wind speed and rainfall from the meteorological observation station nearest to where they are when traveling in our domestic car,” Coşkun said.

Coşkun stated that many meteorological information and weather forecast information will be reached along the route where travel is planned, and thus they will contribute to the comfort of driving with the risk assessment to be made.

- Meteorological data sharing will pave the way for new technologies and services

According to this agreement, which will set an example worldwide, TOGG's electronic interface, called a smart living platform, will be provided with the integration of products such as observation, weather forecasting, road forecasting system and MeteoUyarı to be provided by MGM. Data sharing between TOGG and the General Directorate of Meteorology will take place with the authorization of TOGG by the Ministry of Industry and Technology.

The development of new technologies and services will also be opened up thanks to the applications to be implemented under three headings as Driver-Aimed Applications, In-Car Applications and Use of Sensor Data to Be Taken From The Vehicle and the added value targeted to be provided.

Under the agreement, MGM's data will be used for the planned weather forecasting display in TOGG cars, safe route calculation in navigation and adaptive range calculation, while the Highways Weather Prediction System (KHST), developed by the General Directorate of Meteorology, will be integration into the TOGG Smart Living Platform.

- What will MGM and TOGG bring in cooperation?

Driver Applications: Demonstration of instant weather observations, Presentation of hourly forecasts and meteorological warnings, Presentation of weather information on and along target, Route recommendations by weather to the driver, risk assessment according to meteorological warnings along the route and appropriate clothing recommendations and weather and forecast presentation at vehicle charging stations and driver information system.

In-Car Applications: Sharing the instantaneous and predictive meteorological situation along the driving route with TOGG users, optimizing the power consumption of the vehicle's systems such as headlights, windshield wipers, air conditioning thanks to the data to be transferred to TOGG, and contributing to the more accurate range forecast by predicting the additional energy consumption of the main consumers fed from the battery due to meteorological events.

Use of Sensor Data to Be Obtained from the Vehicle: Windshield Wiper, ABS, ESP, speed, fog light usage, temperature will be taken from sensors such as, transferred to MGM database and evaluated in the instant status information of the data.