CONCAR-EXPO 2018 draws to a close

 More than 800 visitors and more than 80 exhibitors gathered in Berlin on Wednesday and Thursday. At the CONCAR Congress and the CONCAR Forum, participants received visionary insights into the innovations and opportunities of new mobility. Trade show visitors were able to experience prototypes and the latest solutions for automation in the vehicle in great detail. 

Professor Dr Lutz Eckstein, Director of the Institute of Automotive Engineering (IKA) - RWTH Aachen University and Chairman of the VDI Society Automotive and Traffic Systems Technology, opened the CONCAR-CONGRESS with a keynote speech about automated driving. In his lecture, the social and traffic engineering perspectives as well as the economic effects of autonomous driving became particularly clear.

Social Potentials of Automated Driving

Professor Eckstein sees great social potential in autonomous driving. The introduction of driverless shuttles and taxis, for example, automated parking or perfect driver assistance enable better individual mobility. It becomes affordable and increases the quality of life considerably. In addition, automated commercial vehicles, such as autonomous trucks, will soon enable goods to be transported more efficiently, safely and for a cheaper price. New mobility concepts such as Shared Mobility should reduce traffic and, thus, improve the overall quality of life in the city.

Potential for traffic safety and efficiency

Approximately 30% of all accidents are caused by aggressive driving. According to Eckstein, these can be avoided with the help of the new vehicle technologies.

Automated driving and driver assistance add enormously to human capabilities. Thanks to their networking and sensory properties, autonomous vehicles drive cooperatively, proactively and efficiently. Thus, the safety in traffic can be significantly increased, whereby in mixed traffic (automated and conventional) further errors of other road users can still be expected.

Economic Impact

Automobile change is accompanied by a high demand for innovative products and services. This increasing demand allows for a great deal of economic and employment growth. What is needed are a variety of systems for cars, commercial vehicles and new vehicle concepts, especially with electric drive. Infrastructure innovations such as charging infrastructure or network expansion offer further potential, says Prof. Eckstein.

Requirements for Smart Cities

The speakers of the CONCAR-EXPO press conference on the first day of the event also agreed that automated driving brings significant improvements in quality of life and road safety as well as completely new business models. 

Henry Widera, Head of Digitisation at Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG), stated: "Cities are finding ways to establish Sharing Services as attractive and leading mobility concepts before autonomous vehicles become affordable for private households." 

The most significant innovations emerge, according to Nicolaus Gollwitzer, CEO of Telefónica NEXT, in the combination of data, networked hardware and new service models. The use of data is, as he saw it, the key factor in improving living standards and environmental protection. The speakers were also in agreement that in the competition of the cities for the highest quality of life, ultimately only the cities which recognise the potential and implement the new concepts.

CONCAR-EXPO 2019 will take place 25th-26th June