An exciting start to the year at the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszenrum
We started the new year with an exciting first MCube Speaker Series "Future of Mobility" at the Deutsches Museum Verkehrszentrum. Despite the challenge of black ice, around 80 interested people gathered on Tuesday, January 16, to discuss the potential of autonomous driving as a key element for a successful traffic turnaround.
Prof. Johannes Betz: Racing as a driver of innovation for autonomous driving
Prof. Johannes Betz, pioneer and founder of the TUM Autonomous Motorsport Team, gave fascinating insights into how racing is driving the development of autonomous vehicles. His team recently won the Indy Autonomous Challenge at the CES Conference in Las Vegas.
Prof. Betz drew an impressive parallel to the historical role of racing in the automotive industry: in the past, it was crucial for the development of safer, faster and lighter cars. Today, it serves as an indispensable testing ground for collecting and analyzing data that is essential for improving AI in autonomous vehicles. Just as ChatGPT learns through interaction with humans, AI in autonomous vehicles needs challenges like racing to evolve.
Florian Pfab and the MCube Wiesn Shuttle project
Florian Pfab, project manager of the MCube Wiesn Shuttle project, also emphasizes the importance of extreme situations when training the AI. This year, the autonomous shuttle will be used for the first time at the Oktoberfest. The festival provides the perfect backdrop for testing autonomous technologies under real, extreme conditions. At the same time, visitors from all over the world can actively familiarize themselves with autonomous driving technology - an important step towards public engagement. According to Pfab, this is at least as important as the technical development itself.
Eike Bethmann: On-demand mobility and its role in the future
Eike Bethmann from MOIA, the pioneer in the field of on-demand mobility in Hamburg, shared his experiences with Europe's largest on-demand fleet. He discussed the challenges and opportunities arising from the integration of autonomous vehicles into existing mobility services. According to Bethmann, the implementation of autonomous on-demand mobility concepts on a large scale is crucial in order to realize sustainable and economically viable business models.
Alessandro Binetti: Munich's vision for autonomous on-demand services
Alessandro Binetti from Stadtwerke München provided insights into the city's planned autonomous on-demand services. The MINGA project, which deals with the planning, approval and actual operation of autonomous on-demand shuttles, deserves special mention here. In future, these are to supplement the driver-operated Munich on-demand service MVG-MIJA and be used in the city area.
Nic Knapp and the panel discussion: Future potential of autonomous driving
Nic Knapp from TUM Venture Labs - Mobility highlighted the industrial and economic potential of autonomous driving in the concluding panel discussion. He emphasized the importance of promoting start-ups in Munich that transform innovative research ideas into marketable products and make use of the city's strong ecosystem.
Conclusion: The need for a transport revolution
The event highlighted the importance of creating test environments for the development of autonomous driving technologies. It also showed that a revolution in our mobility system is not only possible, but also necessary, not only to drive forward the transport revolution, but also to improve the quality of life through autonomous services. Prof. Johannes Betz put it in a nutshell: "The future does not lie in the individual autonomous S-Class, but in services that are accessible to all, reduce individual traffic and relieve the burden on local public transport."
Concluding thoughts
The MCube Speaker Series impressively demonstrated that autonomous driving is far more than just a technological innovation; it is a decisive factor in shaping our future mobility. The discussions and inputs underlined the complexity of the topic and the importance of cooperation between different sectors - from the racing industry and public transport companies to start-ups and research institutions.
It became clear that we are on the cusp of a new era of mobility, an era in which autonomous technologies have the potential to transform our cities, increase road safety and ultimately contribute to a more sustainable, efficient and inclusive society.
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"The future of mobility" is a series of lectures by MCube - Munich Cluster for the future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions, Technical University of Munich and openLAB Urban Mobility.
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