ByteBattles with Ather Energy: 30 Hours, One EV & a Lot of Coffee

“When was the last time you coded on a real electric vehicle?”
– Probably never. Until ByteBattles.

What is ByteBattles?

ByteBattles is a national-level firmware hackathon hosted by Ather Energy, inviting students and professionals from across India to tackle real-world challenges in the EV (Electric Vehicle) space.

Participants were challenged to develop firmware solutions for the Ather 450x, a flagship electric scooter—and yes, we were actually given the scooter to code on.

Pune to Bangalore: The Journey Begins

3:00 AM: Flight from Pune
8:00 AM: Land in Bangalore and reach Ather HQ
8:30 AM: Check-in, breakfast, orientation
Swag secured: T-shirts + ID cards
Office tour: Our base for the next 30 hours We were five caffeine-powered engineers, barely awake but buzzing with excitement.

The Problem Statement

At the orientation, we were introduced to the real challenge:

Implement 7 firmware features on the Ather 450x over the weekend.

With access to development boards, firmware libraries, and the Ather 450x, we were off to a flying start. Kind of.

Hack Mode: ON

11:00 AM: Coding begins
Problem 1 solved in 10 mins—or so we thought
Turns out… it was a faulty USB cable

While the volunteers helped debug the hardware, we brainstormed and coded two more features—with no working hardware in hand. Grit.

Debug, Debug, Repeat

Two team members: Locked into debugging mode
Rest of us: Shipping code like our lives depended on it
Result: 4 features implemented by the end of the round

But we missed the early submission points—by just a few minutes. That sealed our fate: we didn’t make it to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Watching from the Sidelines

While the top 15 teams moved upstairs to tackle advanced problem statements, we made the most of our time:

Networked with students & working pros
Interactive Q&As with Ather engineers
Explored stripped-down Ather 450x models
Activities: Dumb charades, music, DJ, even a mystery guitar jam session

Night Mode: Floor is the New Bed

By 3 AM, the office had turned into a co-living space:

Bean bags, sleeping bags, and even just floors
Brain fog, but hearts still racing with excitement

The Plot Twist

The next morning, we got another shot at accessing our EV.

30 minutes later, we solved the bug that had blocked us the entire day before.
In one shot, 3 additional features started working.

Talk about tragic timing.

Final Takeaways

Despite not making it to the final round, ByteBattles was:

A rare opportunity to work with real EV hardware
Our first hands-on experience with firmware development
A brilliant space to network with passionate engineers
A steep learning curve that pushed all our boundaries