SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

Edmunds.com will open its “hack” event to those outside the company for the first time this winter, offering the chance to solve real-world auto industry issues and win up to $10,000 in cash.  

“Hack-O-Motive” is a two-day event that aims to re-invent the car shopping experience by bringing together consumers, dealers, manufacturers, designers and technologists to challenge the status quo.

This hack event marks the first which Edmunds has opened to participants from outside the company. Previous internal Hack Days have seen Edmunds employees create real-world solutions for challenges regularly encountered by consumers, dealers and automakers. The company said many of its car-buying products are born through these events.

“A car purchase is one of the biggest financial decisions for most people, and it’s still an unpleasant, anxiety-filled experience that has changed little even with the benefit of online resources,” said Philip Potloff, chief information officer at Edmunds.com. “By bringing together the right mix of bold thought leaders and automotive experts, we believe we can reinvent the car-buying experience from the ground up.”

The Hack-O-Motive event will be held Feb. 27–28 at Edmunds.com’s headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., with a welcome reception set for the evening of Feb. 26.

Hack-O-Motive is open to anyone with an interest in changing the way cars are bought and sold, the company said.

Participants will be divided into teams that are drawn toward a particular issue within the car-buying process, and then develop a prototype to solve the problem.

At the end of the second day, teams will present their prototypes to a panel of judges, who will award the winning team $10,000, with $5,000 and $3,000 cash prizes awarded to the two runners up.

For more details and to register for Hack-O-Motive, see www.hackomotive.com.