We are interested in how people in the future will live and how technological innovations will impact future lifestyles. Mobility will play an important role here, as the Internet, smartphones, and virtual reality are already making us more and more mobile.
Visions of the future come to life
Electric cars drive out of garages automatically, drones deliver packages, and autonomous vehicles project a safe driving corridor for cyclists onto the street — this is what a city might look like in the future.
We launch the initial innovation process for such a future by developing visions of the city of tomorrow together with psychologists, futurologists, and urban planning experts. These visions then arouse others’ interest in shaping this future. The visions thus created show the complex interconnections and opportunities associated with mobility in urban environments in China, the U.S., and Europe.
Smart cities and urban mobility: Mobility that improves quality of life in cities
Up until the 1960s and 70s, urban development focused strongly on vehicles and traffic flows. Over the last 40 years or so, however, the focus has shifted to quality of life for urban residents.
Smart cities go a step further and exploit the possibilities digitalization offers to optimize transport, energy supplies, and logistics. These developments are still in their infancy, but our visions of the future already show today how such developments might manifest themselves tomorrow.
Springboards to a mobile future
The visions of the future are a source of inspiration for all of our specialist departments as they search for approaches that will ensure the best possible design for future mobility systems. The visions serve as springboards for scenarios and use cases that are employed to identify trends and innovation fields which can be exploited for vehicle development purposes. The visions won’t always be completely accurate, of course, but we do our best to get as close as we can to future reality.
A role model for logistics
Completely new types of logistics systems will be needed over the long term to accommodate the increasing flow of goods all around the world. We’re completely rethinking logistics in a multidisciplinary way. One of our role models for a scalable and resilient system is the Internet. More specifically, we believe that just as data packets now use network nodes to navigate their way through an information network, so too might goods be able to route themselves through the “transport jungle” autonomously in the future. Our concepts also examine ways to increase the range of transport options and reduce transport requirements.
Social research identifies requirements and opportunities Products can only be successful on the market if they combine technological and social innovations. That’s why we examine social interrelationships, asking questions such as: What can new technology make possible, which barriers exist in society, and what forces facilitate the spread of new products? It’s very important to take regional differences into account when addressing such questions.
