DAIMLER TECHNICITY 01-2013 English by Mercedes-Benz next

Issue 01 2013

The century of cities Daimler experts investigate the cities of today and tomorrow as the basis for new urban mobility options.

Automotive comfort zone New intelligent comfort features are making the car an even closer partner of humans.

Research for driving pleasure What factors influence the enjoyment of driving? A Daimler study scientifically analyzes driving pleasure.

Innovation Technology Mobility

TecHnicity <Eng.> n; -ies (abbr. T) 1. Noun composed of the words q tech•nol•o•gy (1) and q ci•ty (2) 2. The name of a magazine that describes the use of (1) and particularly of mobility in urban environments and metropolitan areas worldwide 3. <Eng.> for the German q Tech•ni•zi•tät (3) 4. The technical nature of an q in•no•va•ti•on (4)

The century of cities A growing portion of the world’s population now lives in cities and is bringing about a change in the demands placed on the vehicles and mobility services of tomorrow. One particular trend is toward “urban micro e-mobility” – short-distance mobility provided by compact electric vehicles in conjunction with new communication technologies. A pioneer in this development is the smart ebike with iPhone interface.

TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

A mobile future

Increasing global urbanization and the opportunities opened up by the digital world present us with new challenges in terms of human mobility. We must understand these trends and developments and give a great deal of thought to supplements and alternatives to existing mobility solutions. As the inventors of the automobile, we see it as our duty to comprehensively and consistently put to the test all the parameters of road vehicles, while not neglecting the basic needs of individual mobility. TECHNICITY provides you with insights into our research activities and gives an in-depth account of issues that we deal with in pursuing the development of future mobility. Our cover story, “The century of cities” (p. 12) reports on our research activities in the field of urbanization. What forms of urban development are we dealing with here, and what are the conse quences for the development of the automobile? A typology of our cities yields recommendations with regard to tomorrow’s vehicles and mobility services. A detailed understanding of human requirements in terms of mobility is indispensable when it comes to the automobiles and mobility of the future. In our article on the subject of driving pleasure (p. 30), we report on research findings concerning people’s very basic expectations of a car. Our overriding concerns are onboard comfort (p. 24) and the question of what our various customers expect in this regard. As in previous issues, TECHNICITY follows a protagonist through his urban surroundings for a day. In San Diego (p. 38) we meet the neurologist Thilo Hölscher and learn more about the demands placed on individual mobility in one of the most highly developed regions of the world. Stay mobile with us, and find out more about these and other topics! I wish you much pleasure in reading TECHNICITY. Thomas Weber Member of the Board of Daimler AG, responsible for Group Research & Development Mercedes-Benz Cars

INDEX The century of cities 12 Daimler experts investigate the cities of today and tomorrow as a basis for new urban mobility options.

Spectrum 18

Automoti v e comfort zone 24 New intelligent comfort features are making the car an even closer partner of humans.

R esea rch for dr i v ing pleasur e 30 What factors influence the enjoyment of driving? A Daimler study scientifically analyzes driving pleasure.

Metropolis 36

Innovation r egion Sa n Diego 38 This major Californian city is a hotbed of creative activity. Its inhabitants place great emphasis on personal encounter – and thus also on mobility.

Digital 50 Imprint and contactS 50 PROJECTOR 51

WHERE: A MEGACITY IN EUROPE WHEN: 2030

Urban micro e-mobility The trend toward locally emission-free mobility in cities is already clearly discernible. E-cars, e-bikes and e-scooters benefit from space advantages in cramped urban conditions. They save valuable resources and can be conveniently rented anywhere by smartphone, for example in the context of sharing concepts.

WHERE: A SUBURB IN NORTH AMERICA WHEN: 2030

Alternative drives One option for future vehicles is electrification of the drive system, adapted to various local requirements. By 2030, many cities will therefore have a close-knit network of charging stations for plug-in hybrids and purely electric vehicles with state-of-the-art battery technology, along with hydrogen refueling stations for fuel-cell vehicles.

WHERE: A MEGACITY IN ASIA WHEN: 2030

Autonomous driving Over the coming decades, the continuing development of driver assistance systems will allow vehicles to be driven entirely autonomously whenever required. Dedicated lanes of traffic will be reserved for self- driving vehicles spaced at precisely defined intervals. Their drivers can relax, communicate, or be entertained.

The cen t u ry of ci t i es

On all continents, cities are developing into the focal points of human life. Daimler researchers have devised an urban typology that will help us to understand the various impacts on city living and will provide stimuli for shaping tomorrow’s worlds of road vehicles and mobility services.

Text Rüdiger ABELE

RENDERING Krieger des Lichts, xoio

ILLUSTRATION Iassen MARKOV

PHOTOGRAPHY Delia Baum

Keywords

New for ms of mobility Ur ba n dev elopment Futur e r esea rch Ur ba nity Ur ba n ty pology

A MEGACITY IN EUROPE, 2030 The visitor stands on the sidewalk and observes the traffic at an intersection. Wind turbines atop a heritage-listed building give an indication as to where most of the electricity is now derived – from renewable sources. A businessman on an electrically powered scooter whirrs past. Behind him is a Mercedes-Benz coupé with plug-in hybrid drive technology, which electrically powers the quiet vehicle. The automobile is about to turn left, and a warning projected on to the road alerts all nearby traffic to the oncoming vehicle, a battery-powered B-Class car. The bike lane is marked in red. For his short journey through the city center, the visitor will rent an e-bike at the public charging station. Or should he take the fuel cell-powered bus that is just arriving over there – or perhaps one of the car2go automobiles? The urban mobility of the future offers individual flexibility and freedom of choice.

ities. The focal points of human living. Within a clearly delineated area, residents from all generations busily go about their day-to-day activities and find accommodation, schools, jobs, shops, and leisure facilities. And they use mobility to exploit the opportunities open to them and to shape their daily lives. Mobility is the binding agent of social and economic activity. There are several modes of transport available: some that ensure individual privacy, and a number of local public transport media. The city is shared by everyone and everything, so that practically every need can be met as conveniently as possible – the experts refer to this as “shared space” when this all takes place even on a joint traffic route. Cities are highly diverse. For example they can be large or small, full or empty, constricted or generously spaced, modern or traditional. There is practically no limit to the number or combination of such defining characteristics. But they all share one aspect, namely the matter of how quality of life is taken into account – and this is vital for the development of the inhabitants in their local environment and key to the future of the overall system. In view of the prediction that the number of people living in cities will continue to grow strongly, the importance of this entire issue becomes even more obvious. More and more people will move to increasingly large cities in the course of the 21st century – this is the essence of all the forecasts. By 2025 the world’s urban population will have grown from today’s figure of 3.5 billion to an estimated 4.5 billion, while the rural population is only likely to increase very slightly from 3.4 billion to 3.5 billion. The United Nations estimates that about 75 percent of the world’s inhabitants will be living in cities in 2050, as compared to today’s figure of 50 percent. Cities are facing

increasing challenges for the future, above all with regard to climate change and supplies of energy and raw materials (with shortages to be expected in some regions of the world), economic development, quality of life, and social harmony. Cities are crystallization points for innovation. Daimler’s future research is also focusing intensely on urban transformation. The task at hand is first of all to acquire a comprehensive understanding of today’s cities in these times of increasing urbanization, in order to gain a perspective for the future; this naturally has a great deal to do with mobility. After all, Daimler is a comprehensive mobility provider already today. City-oriented future research has generated an urban typology for the 21st century that describes the multifarious and changing nature of lifestyles and mobility. “We are embarking on the century of cities,” says Frank Ruff, Head of Society and Technology at Daimler Research. “We have therefore developed eight characteristic urban models in order to compare cities and arrive at a better understanding of their differences and similarities.” The individual models have it all when it comes to the future of urban living: One example is “Compact Prosperous Variety” – wealthy, creative cities on a comparatively small space and at the same time usually marked by a long tradition, such as New York, London, Berlin, or Barcelona. And then there is the “Flourishing Suburbia” model, comprising thriving urban regions such as the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, or conurbations like Stuttgart and its surroundings. The “Urban Aspirants” comprise cities that are already burgeoning today and will continue this development over the coming years; these cities are to be found above all in East Asia, for instance Beijing or Shanghai. A further interesting model is “Striving Modernity” – aspiring cities that are undergoing a clear transition from more traditional structures to a strong brand of traditional modernity, such as Delhi, Mexico City, São Paulo, Jakarta, or Moscow. In-depth analysis of urban models “The objective is to gain an even better understanding of cities as living and operating environments and to draw conclusions for the vehicles and services of tomorrow,” says Ruff. “In-depth analysis of the urban models is of help here, as it points out both unifying and divisive patterns, thereby providing insights into individual patterns of mobility.” Like any typology, this analysis of urban models is based on a set of relevant features or dimensions that define the individual categories. The investigations carried out by the Daimler researchers have yielded six dimensions, each with its own fundamental distinguishing features and characteristics (see next page). “On the basis of these models, it is possible to compare towns above and beyond the categories of regional and national attributes,” explains Stefan Carsten, who supervised the development of urban models in the research group together with his colleague Christian Neuhaus. “Furthermore, they are crucial for an understanding of the future dimensions of urban mobility – and can thus also point out potential fields of activity for Daimler.” TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

A SUBURB IN NORTH AMERICA, 2030 A North American suburb in 2030, part of a large metropolitan area in the south of the U.S. The townscape and street scenario are open and expansive. Wind turbines in the background give an indication of the growing importance of renewable energy forms. Even the traditionally car-oriented Americans are now starting to use other modes of transport more and more often for short trips. E-scooters are a frequent sight. A hydrogen filling station for fuel cell vehicles is conveniently located next to a shopping center. A pedestrian strolls along the sidewalk, which is clearly separated from the roadway: Covering short distances on foot is seen as a personal statement for fitness and an active contribution to the conservation of resources. On the road, an electrically powered Mercedes-Benz sedan with fuel cell plug-in hybrid drive cruises past. Mobility has gradually become more diversified, even in the formerly auto-dominated American suburbia.

DIMENSIONS OF DAIMLER’S URBAN TYPOLOGY “Change” – How rapidly does the city undergo transformation? This is the essence of this dimension, whereby change can take a generally positive direction, for example through the establishment of new industries, revitalization, or a strong influx of people – but can also undergo a negative development, marked by decay and shrinkage (of the population and industry). “Life” – To what extent is the city alive? This dimension describes the vitality of a city, in the truest sense of the word – to what extent is it fit for survival in the understanding of its inhabitants? At one end of the scale we have cities such as Copenhagen that are in excellent “health”; this is reflected for example in a strong economy and a variegated cultural scene. At the other extreme are cities such as Lagos or Baghdad, where many inhabitants have to fight for mere survival. The dimension of “Life” differentiates strongly between cities in highly industrialized or emerging countries and those in the developing nations. “Form” – What does the city look like? “Form” describes the visible shell of the conurbation and, as a consequence, the extent to which it is prepared to meet the challenges of the future. The researchers’ criteria for a hub of development include the following attributes: compact, functionally and socially mixed, polycentric, multimodally connected, variegated, green, controlled in a complex manner, traffic-calmed, and architecturally distinctive. They currently see only a few cities as approaching this ideal, such as Stockholm and Barcelona, or to a certain extent Berlin, London, and Portland. The emerging and developing countries have a long way to catch up in this regard. 14

“Size” – How big is the city? A conurbation of 2,000 inhabitants is already defined as a city in some countries, and at the upper end of the scale are metropolises with a population of 20 million or more. Urbanity and urban mobility are to be found in cities of all sizes, ranging in quality from mediocre to excellent. One finding with farreaching implications for this study is that cities from one and the same size category are by no means identical. “Relations” – To what extent is the city networked? This refers above all to the global ranking enjoyed by a city and how well it is known. Paris, Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai each have a distinctive image and are well known throughout the world. At the other end of the scale are relatively unknown cities without a characteristic profile. “Governance” – How is the city controlled? “Governance” describes to what extent a city’s social and political structures can orient themselves toward new objectives at any time – how adaptable it is, and also the extent to which the common good is placed before selfinterest. Cities in Scandinavia, but also in autocratic systems such as China, are marked by robust “governance.” The cities at the opposite end of the scale tend to develop strong momentum in favor of individuals, mostly as a result of economic interests. The researchers in Berlin used these six dimensions to analyze numerous cities on all continents. “This provided the basis for the eight urban models that allow us to grasp the diverse nature of various cities,” says Stefan Carsten. In addition to the four categories outlined above, the researchers have also developed the urban models “Classic Sprawl,” “Saturated Urbanity,” “Continuous Decay,” and “Desperate Stagnation” (see facing page for details). Differentiated conclusions The consequences of these investigations for future Daimler products are no less varied than the urban models themselves. The researchers see the “Compact Prosperous Variety” model leading to decreasing importance for the private automobile, and at the same time expect new opportunities for flexible usage models and mobility services that link various modes of transport. The “Flourishing Suburbia” urban model stands for high affinity and demand for environmentally friendly drive systems, with stable demand for automobiles. The “Urban Aspirants” model accords public transport an important role and sees great opportunities for vehicle-based mobility. However, the researchers are reluctant to reveal what specific plans for new vehicle concepts or services are being envisaged for which urban models or individual cities – this knowledge is of high strategic value to the company. It is being made directly available to the product development and strategic marketing departments, for instance to provide impetus in the search for interesting extensions to the vehicle range and in the design of future vehicles, but also in the development of new mobility services. A statement from these sectors is that there will be “urban-fit” vehicles – automobiles tailored to the mobility

A typology of cities The eight urban models from Daimler’s future research Desperate Stagnation (e.g. Kolkata) The oppressive, depressed city with only limited opportunities for development.

Classic Sprawl (e.g. Las Vegas) The suburban city

Urban Aspirants

in the Western

(e.g. Kuala Lumpur, Curitiba)

Hemisphere with a

The young, compact city on an

tradition of prosperity.

ambitious route to a promising urban future.

Saturated Urbanity (e.g. Hamburg, Stockholm) The tradition-rich, compact city marked by unbroken urban continuity. Compact Prosperous Variety (e.g. Barcelona, Berlin, New York) The compact, multifaceted city that partly lags behind and partly moves ahead of transformation, while constantly reinventing itself.

Striving Modernity (e.g. Delhi, Moscow) The burgeoning city on traditional paths to modernization.

Continuous Decay (e.g. Baghdad) The city in a state of advancing, constant decay.

Flourishing Suburbia (e.g. San Francisco Bay Area) A prosperous settlement landscape with generous spaces that repeatedly redefines itself.

A MEGACITY IN ASIA, 2030 A large Asian city with high population density, seen in the early evening light in 2030. It is striving vertically, since space is limited and expensive. The road area is extended by mobility corridors at higher levels. Modern skyscrapers glowing in bright colors line the road, which is shared by cars, public transport vehicles, and motorbikes, all powered by various drive concepts. On dedicated lanes provided for autonomous driving the traffic flows smoothly, and the drivers can turn

t - Interview

»Cities are the most important ›vessels‹ for a living world.«

their attention to other activities. A high-speed railway links the city center with other transport hubs such as airports. Pedestrians stroll next to the road and at a higher level, or on walkways and bridges located above the roadway. For short and medium-length trips on this walkway, those who do not wish to go on foot can spontaneously opt for a small, automatically controlled capsule vehicle. A resident has just arrived home and, together with his automobile, is being lifted up by the

Stefan Carsten from the Daimler Society and Technology Research Group on the future of cities.

exterior car loft to his apartment.

Motivation Mr. Carsten, what motirequirements of a city, which within the Group could yield a whole range of vehicles catering to the various urban models. There is a discernible trend for example toward “urban micro e-mobility,” i.e. shortdistance mobility based on small electric vehicles. smart, a brand of Mercedes-Benz Cars, is a pioneer in this field, offering products with locally emission-free mobility for short, medium, and long distances: The smart fortwo electric drive has already been joined by the ebike, and production of the battery-powered escooter is currently under preparation. Work is also being carried out on additional innovation impulses for urban micromobility. “Our urban typology project is primarily concerned with arriving at an understanding of the diverse nature of urban living and its impact on the urban mobility of tomorrow,” summarizes Ruff, “for passenger cars, commercial vehicles, new vehicle concepts, and mobility services alike.” To present this concept more vividly and in greater detail, realistic scenarios were created that will enhance our understanding of the expected changes to the urban environment and innovations in mobility. But will it all turn out exactly like this? Ruff gives us food for thought: “The future often has surprises in store for us, but we have already started to steer them in the described strategic directions.”

HYPERLINK Further information related to this article: technicity.DAIMLER.COM/EN/FUTURE-OF-CITIES

• INTERACTIVE The urban models of the Daimler futurologists in an interactive animated presentation. • BACKGROUND (1) Cities and how they operate. (2) “Urban micro e-mobility”: the trend toward electric short-distance mobility in the city.

vated Daimler to devise an urban typology? This was above all a result of our ongoing intense interest in future issues. After all, Daimler’s future research team concerns itself with the various factors that may have an impact on future products, in order to derive recommendations for future vehicle and mobility options. To me, cities are the most important “vessels” for a living world. They are where life takes place, and mobility provides the vital connecting link, with a high degree of future variance. This is why we have positioned urbanity and urban mobility at the focus of our attention to develop a typology of urban models through this project. The objective is to gain a better overall understanding of the perspectives for the development of small, medium-sized, and large cities. For cities constantly evolve even in highly developed markets.

TRENDS What clues do statistics provide for your research? They have provided us with a second important reason for our intensive dealing with cities. A statistical turning point was reached around 2008: It was at this time that the number of people living in cities first reached the 50 percent mark. In other words, more than half of the world’s population now lives in conurbations. And this trend is continuing. The United Nations estimates that today’s figure of just over 50 percent will have increased by the year 2050 to about 75 percent of all humanity living in cities. That may sound like a distant forecast, but in fact it will already affect the next generation.

Results Could you describe to us the results of these observations? The project yielded a comprehensive, highly informative typology comprising

eight different urban models. It allows us to clearly categorize almost any city in the world, in other words to assign cities to particular urban models. This in turn helps us to draw specific conclusions about life in a particular city, and thus also about its mobility. However, this typology should not be interpreted as a rating scale; it is a characterization tool.

and thus to the entire urban typology model – because all-encompassing mobility is a vital interest of Daimler. We therefore also gave a great deal of attention to questions such as: What forms of mobility will our future customers choose? For what purposes do they use a car – today and in the future? How much time do they spend on particular routes? What average speeds do they reach? Data were also collected in a targeted manner by means of recording devices. This yielded a very multifaceted mosaic of mobility, which we in turn compared against our expectations for the future.

Complexity How long did the team work on this urban typology? It took us about two years of intensive work. But we have been investigating cities as habitats since the late 1990s; otherwise it would have not been possible to arrive at this complex model in such a short time. It was interesting to see that media attention has been shifting more and more towards the cities over the past few years.

DIMENSIONS What kind of research and investigations did you carry out for the urban typology? A typology is only as good as the purpose for which it is intended – in this case, gaining greater clarity regarding cities as living and mobility spaces of the future. It soon became clear that for this project, we had to account for the entire range of different urban models and characterize each city type. What are the main criteria for differentiating between cities? Which models can be identified? These were the issues we had to deal with. For this purpose, we identified a number of influencing factors which we believe can serve to provide a differentiated picture of today’s and tomorrow’s cities. We assigned these factors to six specific categories, which we also call “dimensions of a city,” by means of which conurbations of all sizes can be described in very clearcut terms.

Curriculum Vitae Stefan Carsten, born 1973 Doctorate in geography Member of the Daimler Society and Technology Research Group in Berlin since 2000 Member of the thinkAUTO research network for safe and sustainable urban mobility since 2009 Visiting Professor of Social Future Research at the Academy of Fine Arts in Braunschweig – Institute for Transportation Research (ITD) since 2010 Key activities in the fields of social science research, urban and mobility research, and social transfor

Innovations Could you give us some examples of how mobility is incorporated into the various urban models? Each urban model implies mobility scenarios of its own, which provide insights for potential products from Daimler. The automobile, for example, has a different level of significance in different types of city, also in terms of various drive concepts such as the electric motor, plug-in hybrid or the gas engine. The urban models provide inspiration for entirely new vehicle concepts. We have gained insights into the current and possible future significance of mobility services, and the typology also gives us an indication of the profiles of public transport in the various urban models. These statements are based on interviews and studies that were conducted on site, so that we can for example make predictions regarding the conditions applying to future cities and their transport scenarios.

mation research

MOBILITY Where can the aspect of mobility be found in these urban models? In all our urban analyses, and in our specification of the dimensions, mobility was invariably our key reference point that is directly or indirectly inherent to all factors TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

BATTERY TECHNOLOGY

SPECTRUM

Martin fritz East Asia correspondent for WirtschaftsWoche and other media, stationed in Tokyo TOKYO, Japan

KYOTO, Japan

We are about to enter the era of electric drive systems – as soon as there are storage batteries that can perform much better than today’s lithium-ion batteries. The electric car can only make the breakthrough to become a mass-market vehicle with a range of several hundred kilometers per battery charge. Accordingly, East Asia’s industry is working feverishly to develop future storage battery generations. One of the favorites is the lithium-air battery, where lithium occupies the entire battery cell as anode, and oxygen from the atmosphere functions as cathode. This design enables ten times the energy density of today’s batteries. Similarly promising are sodium-ion cells. A coin-size prototype from Japan already delivers 30 percent more voltage than a conventional lithium battery. Sodium dissolved in seawater in large quantities would drastically reduce the cost of batteries.

SINGAPORE, Singapore

»Along with a high power density the new storage battery generation needs an adequate number of charge cycles and a long life.«

Chemical companies are busy testing other interesting materials as electrodes and electrolytes. Some use hard carbon as anode and an oxide based on a metallic mixture as cathode. A test cell has already attained 90 percent of the energy of a lithium battery. However, along with a high powerdensity the new storage battery generation needs an adequate number of charge cycles and a long life. The art of the battery researchers is in reconciling all these requirements. In view of the extent of work carried out and the financial investments made, it will only be a matter of time until they succeed.

GROW ING M AR K E T 500,000 electric cars will be built worldwide in 2015 according to a Roland Berger forecast.

22 % annual growth is anticipated for the lithium storage battery market by the Yano Research Institute.

37,000,000,000 USD in global revenues are expected in 2015 in the lithium battery sector.

ASIA OCEANIA

500 K m / h PROTOTYPE FOR MAGLEV TRAIN TOKYO, Japan The world’s only magnetic levitation railway – apart from the short Transrapid route in Shanghai from the airport to the city – is under construction right now in Japan. Operator Central Japan Railway Company (JR Tokai) has now revealed a prototype of the first car of the maglev train. The 16 cars of a single train should have a capacity of around 1,000 passengers. The first section leads from Tokyo to Nagoya and is supposed to reduce the current traveling time with the Shinkansen super high speed train from 90 minutes to just 40 minutes, at a speed of 500 kilometers per hour. Completion of the first section of the route is scheduled for 2015, and the complete line is expected to take up operation in 2027. Only China plans to keep pace and even outdo Japan soon: it is planning a maglev railway that will run in a vacuum tube. This would permit doubling the potential speed to as much as 1,000 kilometers per hour. engadget.com

0.002 W

–20 ° C

TINY SOLAR CELLS IN CLOTHING KYOTO, Japan

COOLING BY LASER PULSE SINGAPORE, Singapore

Japanese scientists have d eveloped a fabric into which countless tiny solar cells are woven. When a person is on the move they could supply electricity for a mobile phone and, in an emergency, produce energy for essential things. The solar cells worked into the textiles – they come from the start-up Sphelar Power in Kyoto – are only 1.2 millimeters “large” and owing to their sphere-like structure absorb more sunlight than flat solar cells. The electrodes are positioned on the side facing away from the spheres. Before this can be commercialized, the researchers still have to improve the insulation of the conductive wires and make the fabric more durable. They are expected to succeed by 2015. The special fabric was developed together with the Industrial Technology Center of Fukui Prefecture and can contain several ten-thousands of spherical solar cells. Each cell delivers 0.002 watts of electricity on a sunny day; it is stored for the night with the aid of a battery. The fabric is so flexible and foldable that it is suitable also for curtains and other commercial household materials.

Researchers at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore have demonstrated an optical cooling technique that could eliminate the need for the large and often loud cooling units in the future. In their experiment, with targeted laser pulses they cooled down a semiconductor made of cadmium sulfide from plus 20 degrees Celsius to minus 20 degrees Celsius, providing the initial proof that semiconductors can be cooled by the optical process. According to the researchers, even far lower temperatures can be obtained with the help of lasers. The possible fields of application for this technology are many and varied: from computer chips which cool themselves and so significantly increase the life of batteries in portable terminal devices, to the elimination of coolants in refrigerators, on through to environment-friendly, energy-saving and space-saving cooling systems for major pieces of medical equipment, satellites or vehicles. asianscientist.com

eetimes.com

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SPECTRUM VÄSTERÅS, Sweden

GR APHEN E Jochen WITTMANN Since 1993 freelance foreign correspondent for the

HAMBURG, Germany

Newsforum Eurotopics and numerous

Karlsruhe, Germany

German-language dailies, stationed in London

It promises to be the miracle material of the future: Graphene could be used as material to produce new kinds of transistors or solar cells. The properties of graphene were first described by two scientists from the University of Manchester in 2004. In 2010, Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov received the Nobel Prize in Physics for this achievement.

ABERPORTH, UK

»Europe must learn to harvest the economic fruits of its graphene research.«

KITE SAILS SAVE FUEL HAMBURG, Germany Old familiar technologies have not necessarily outlived their usefulness. In the shipping industry we now see the return of wind power, the cheapest and most environment-friendly source of energy on the high seas. The Hamburgbased company SkySails equips big freighters and smaller yachts with huge kite sails to supplement the vessels’ drive systems. This reportedly helps them save between 10 and 35 percent of the fuel. The towing kites used by SkySails generate up to 25 times more force per square meter surface than conventional sail-based propulsion systems. The huge sail is controlled from the ship’s bridge. Launch and landing are partly automated. During operation the kite is completely controlled by autopilot. skysails.info

Today, research and development are moving ahead at full speed everywhere in the world, because nothing less than a technological revolution is hoped for from graphene. No wonder, considering the astonishing qualities of the material. Graphene is pure carbon in a one-atom thick sheet. The two-dimensional, honeycomb-like structure gives the material fantastic properties: It is extremely light, extremely resistant to tensile stress, extremely conductive, and extremely stiff in the plane, while also being transparent, heat-resistant, and impervious to gas and liquid. Chinese researchers have just discovered that it is also bactericidal. At the end of 2012, there were 7,351 patents and patent applications relating to graphene worldwide. Although basic research started in Europe, most of the patents – and consequently the potential value added – go to the Far East. China alone holds 2,204 graphene patents, while South Korea has 1,160. Fiftyfour patents have been registered in the UK. The EU Commission has now promised one billion euros for graphene research. Europe must learn to harvest the economic fruits of its research.

EUROPE

A irwriting

144 BILLIO N EM AIL S

Writing without a pen or keyboard Karlsruhe, Germany

THE INTERNET 2012 IN FIGURES VÄSTERÅS, Sweden

Scientists from the Cognitive System Lab at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a motion detection system which could dispense with the need for keyboards and touchscreens for digital writing in future. Instead, the user can simply write by hand in the air with the aid of a wrist-mounted gyroscopic sensor. A computer recognizes the typical hand movements, and even individual differences in the “handwriting” of various users, and converts them into digital text. Currently, the portable portion of the system is still integrated into a thin glove, but the researchers are working toward further reducing its size so that the sensors can be housed for example in an inconspicuous bracelet. Once the system is integrated into devices such as smartphones, it could one day even be possible to dispense with such a bracelet entirely. The handwriting recognition function still needs to be extended and optimized. So far, only capital letters can be recognized and converted into a vocabulary of about 8,000 words.

F LI GH T LAB UNMANNED AVIATION ABERPORTH, UK

The British aviation consortium Astraea wants to put unmanned aircraft into service. The enterprise, in which BAE Systems, Thales and others hold stakes, works closely together with the British air traffic control authority and wants to establish drones in civilian aviation too. After successful test flights over the Irish Sea, further tests are planned to prove that the radio systems and sensors on board the Jetstream flying test lab can autonomously recognize other aircraft and avoid a collision. However, for the time being, the plan is to use the drones in future not in passenger air services but in airfreight operations.

Around 2.2 billion people in the world send around 144 billion emails every day. Unfortunately, more than two-thirds of all messages sent are unwelcome spam. At the 2012 year-end, there were 634 million websites, 51 million of which were added during the year. 1.3 billion smartphones were in use worldwide in December, while the total number of mobile phone users was 5.5 billion. These are just a few of the figures from the annual internet statistics of the internet company Pingdom in the Swedish city of Västerås. The USA maintained its dominant position in the web in 2012: 43 percent of the top one million websites are hosted in the United States. The U.S. also leads in email services. With 425 million users, Gmail is the Number One email provider, and with a market share of more than 35 percent, Mail on Apple’s iOS devices is the most popular mail program in the world. Asia leads in the number of individual internet users, with 1.1 billion, followed by 519 million in Europe. North America ranks third with 274 million. royal.pingdom.com

astraea.aero

kit.edu

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COWO R K ING

SPECTRUM

Steffan HEUER U.S. correspondent for brand eins and the German edition of Technology Review, special fields: high-tech and economics

Cost-conscious start-ups not only live in the Cloud, they even virtualize their teams. Instead of encumbering themselves with long-term office leases, founders rent co working spaces. In this way they cut their fixed costs and create spontaneous but valuable links with other creative minds. A prime example of this is a coworking corridor that has come into being in the high-tech stronghold San Francisco. While a successful company like Twitter occupies a formerly deserted part of the center, around the corner from it, several large coworking space providers have set up shop. Four companies to date offer infrastructure and a community of like-minded people for hundreds of start-ups – not to mention the 20-odd other coworking spaces which exist in the city.

»The working world of the future needs creative coworking spaces as dynamic places for meeting and interchange.«

Coworking is far more than a flexible workplace. Its biggest value derives from the chance meetings with other experts. Apart from that, major enterprises like Google promote this culture of innovative exchange to raise the pace of innovation. In the new world of coworking, the greatest attraction for creative professionals is that it’s an idea bazaar. Jeremy Neuner, coworking pioneer and CEO of NextSpace, describes this vision in his new book, The Naked Economy. The future of the working world, he argues, will be shaped by transitory teams that come together for a project and then quickly break up again when the job is done. And this working world requires coworking spaces as dynamic places for meeting and interchange.

STANFORD, USA

Washington D.C., usa

COWO R K ING IN FIGU R ES 2,150 coworking spaces exist today worldwide.

53 percent of the “coworkers” are self-employed professionals.

42,000,000 self-employed persons work today in the USA.

24 coworking spaces operate in San Francisco alone.

PITTSBURGH, USA

LAS VEGAS, USA

NORTH AMERICA

SOC I AL S PACE ROBOTS LEARN SOCIAL BEHAVIOR PITTSBURGH, USA Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh want to make better listeners out of robots with the help of cameras. To do this they fitted human test subjects with headmounted video cameras which were activated whenever the gazes of several participants in a discussion intersected. The conclusion was that a person important for the conversation had to be standing there. From the collected data their software can construct a three-dimensional “space of social significance.” Every hotspot provides valuable illustrative material for robots. The scientists hope that if machines are better able to follow and interpret such “social signals,” they will be able to join a group of people (or other machines) and learn to choose the right person to talk to.

1.6 PE TA BY T ES

DI AM E T E R 4 METERS

SUPERCOMPUTER FOR FLOW SIMULATIONS STANFORD, USA

INFLATABLE SPACE CAPSULES LAS VEGAS, USA

Computer scientists from Stanford University in California, USA, can pride themselves on having built one of the biggest and fastest supercomputers. The computer features just about 1.6 million processors and 1.6 petabytes, or 1,024 terabytes, of memory capacity. The IBM Sequoia serves to perform complex flow dynamics simulations and especially to model the noise of supersonic jets. The aim of the research project at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is to develop engines by computer aid that cause less noise than conventional aircraft. Strictly speaking the supercomputer is a sophisticated network in which each processor is linked with ten others. However, the Sequoia is not the biggest supercomputer. This honor goes to a computer called Titan, located in a U.S. laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. engineering.stanford.edu

FIR ST PL ACE

No other region in the USA produces more patents per employee than Silicon Valley, which includes San Jose. According to a survey of the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington D.C., the high-tech stronghold in Santa Clara County is the unchallenged leader, uninterruptedly since 1988. Silicon Valley generated 12.57 patents per employee last year – especially owing to the unbroken innovative prowess of the companies domiciled there, such as Apple, Cisco, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. The Corvallis region south of Portland in the state of Oregon is a distant second with 5.27 patents. The Bay Area – the metropolitan area between San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose – only takes sixth place.

Entrepreneur Robert Bigelow became rich on earth with a cheap hotel chain. Now his dream of making an inflatable shelter for outer space has finally become a reality. With two of his modules orbiting the earth since 2006 on a test basis, the NASA space agency has concluded an agreement with Bigelow to test a “Beam” inflatable space capsule as part of the International Space Station (ISS) in mid-2015. To date Bigelow Aerospace has invested some USD 250 million in the vision of the space business. In addition to the agreement with NASA, the company has signed tentative contracts with seven other space agencies from Singapore to Sweden. The ultimate objective is to lease the inflatable capsules to research facilities and companies which want to test products there, carry out experiments, or accommodate astronauts. The “Beams,” which have a diameter of four meters, are manufactured in a purpose-built factory in Las Vegas.

brookings.edu

bigelowaerospace.com

SILICON VALLEY LEADS IN PATENTS Washington D.C., usa

cmu.edu

TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

AU TOMOT I VE CO MFORT ZONE

Comprehensive comfort makes the car the driver’s partner. Examples of current projects include the seamless integration of digital terminal devices.

Text Peter Thomas ILLUSTRATION Bernd Schifferdecker

n the future, every car journey will still begin by getting into the vehicle: by opening the door (or getting the car to open it for you), taking your seat behind the steering wheel (or behind the steering instrument of the day), starting the engine (or the drive system consisting of several differently powered units) – and feeling at ease. The human desire for vehicle comfort is as old as the automobile itself, and applies not only to luxurious limousines, but also to sports cars, vans and commercial vehicles. Comfort does not necessarily have to do with luxury, but rather with the satisfaction of emotional expectations in relation to such diverse factors as safety and security, power and driving dynamics, intelligent support from the vehicle and technical interfaces to everyday communications systems. Every era has set its own goals for designers and engineers – and this has spawned a correspondingly wide spectrum of technical solutions that have driven forward the level of automobile comfort. With each vehicle generation, the quest for holistic comfort is a key parameter for Daimler designers and engineers as they work on the car of the future. This applies not only to the integration of active and passive assistant systems to form “Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive,” but also to innovative approaches to the design of humanmachine interfaces in order to guarantee safe control of increasingly complex systems. In future, therefore, comfort will, for example, also mean less: Clarity and calm will welcome the driver inside the vehicle. Instead of being greeted by a flood of information, status messages and requests for interaction, the human driver will experience a world that is perfectly attuned to his or her needs. Factors such as communications settings, use of media, ergonomics, air conditioning and lighting control will be automatically adjusted by the vehicle in line with the driver’s personal preferences and the current situation. Everything else will be intuitively adjustable by the driver. COMFORT AS A HISTORICAL CONSTANT IN AUTOMOBILE DEVELOPMENT

KEYWORDS

Intelligent Drive HOLISTIC COMFORT ASSISTANT SYSTEMS V EHICLE INTER IOR SENSE OF COMFORT

The ability of such intelligently integrated assistant systems to independently organize themselves evokes the principles of the fourth industrial revolution: After the age of the machine (principally the internal combustion engine as far as the automobile is concerned), the age of production based on division of labor (as reflected in the rapid and affordable technical evolution of the motor vehicle thanks to the advent of mass production) and the age of digital technology (electronics as the precursor to assistant systems and communications technology in automobiles), today’s industrial era is one of distributed, interlinked production based on autonomous communication processes. The automobile of the future will be equipped with similar functionalities and a new level of driver assistance will deliver a special quality of holistic automobile comfort. This epoch-making transformation will also impact on the relationship between driver and vehicle: “The automobile will increasingly evolve into the driver’s partner,” says Hartmut Sinkwitz, head of interior design at Mercedes-Benz. This partner on four wheels will get to know the driver’s preferences, which, in turn, will enable it to relieve the driver of a variety of tasks without thereby curtailing his or her decision-making possibilities. “Today’s driver is moving further and further away from the role of machine operator that came with the first driving machines shortly after the invention of the automobile,” explains Sinkwitz. The automobile comfort features of the future would also seem to echo what the

NEW POWERNAP FEATURES

NEW AUDIO FEATURES

ensure quick recuperation for mind and body.

become an important element of well-being.

STIMULATING AND RELAXING FRAGRANCES additionally help to keep the driver in good shape at the wheel.

NEW AIR CONDITIONING FEATURES guarantee an even more pleasant atmosphere inside the vehicle.

SEAT MASSAGER WITH SIGNIFICANTLY MORE FEATURES allows noticeable physical relaxation thanks to back massages.

Personal Coach Mercedes-Benz’s Active Comfort concept, defined as “performance-enhancing comfort,” provides for well-being, recuperation and sub sequent fitness at the wheel. New active and passive features transform the automobile into a personal coach.

TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

MERCEDES-BENZ INTELLIGENT DRIVE WITH NEW ASSISTANT SYSTEMS

TRAFFIC SIGN ASSIST with extended functionality. COLLISION Prevention Assist Radar-based Collision Prevention Assist with Adaptive Brake Assist significantly reduces the risk of a rear-end collision. BAS PLUS WITH JUNCTION ASSIST detects dangerous situations also at junctions with crossing traffic and sends out visual and audible warnings. ATTENTION ASSIST operates in an extended speed range and with adjustable sensitivity to warn about inattentiveness and fatigue.

ACTIVE PARK ASSIST enables automatic reversing into a parking space with active intervention by the steering and braking systems. MORE INTELLIGENT DRIVING New and improved driving assistance systems such as those in the new Mercedes-Benz E-Class and the coming S-Class ensure that comfort and safety are increasingly merged into one. Mercedes-Benz

ACTIVE LANE KEEPING ASSIST is capable of detecting vehicles in adjacent lanes and, if there is a risk of collision, of preventing unintentional lane changes by means of one-sided braking.

calls this “Intelligent Drive.” State-of-the-art

DISTRONIC PLUS WITH STEER ASSIST

sensors and algorithms form the basis for a new

helps the driver to stay in lane and includes semi-autono-

feeling of safety and comfort at the wheel.

mous Traffic Jam Assist.

REVERSING CAMERA provides parking and maneuvering assistance as soon as reverse gear is selected. 360 DEGREE CAMERA gives a view to all four sides of the vehicle and allows a homogeneous all-round view, including a virtual bird’s eye view. Dynamic guide lines provide help for parking and maneuvering.

philosopher Eduard Graf Keyserling said back in 1905 about the psychology of comfort: “We seek friendship with things [...], albeit a friendship that is curiously selfish on our part, yet entirely subservient on the other’s part.” So the discourse about comfort is not a new phenomenon. Also, the quest for automobile comfort has been a constant theme throughout the history of development of the motor vehicle. It has been an omnipresent challenge for Daimler designers and engineers to implement continuous improvements in comfort, ever since Carl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler invented the automobile independently of each other in 1886. What has changed in the meantime is not the goal itself, but the way in which each era defines automobile comfort in the light of contemporary trends in road traffic, the state of the art in automotive technology and the typical driving situation. THE HISTORY OF COMFORT Back in 1886, the very integration of a high-speed internal combustion engine into a road vehicle represented a revolutionary comfort feature in comparison with existing forms of mobility. In the decades that followed this first hour of the automobile, engineers set themselves the goals of ever better handling, higher power and greater safety. A further concern focused on maintaining and improving the performance of the driver. The Mercedes 35 HP from 1901 with its low center of gravity, long wheelbase and groundbreaking drive technology is today seen as the first modern automobile. In its day, it, too, set new standards of comfort. Since then, vehicles from Mercedes-Benz have again and again raised the bar in terms of automobile comfort and its various facets, especially in the luxury segment. This is true of prestige vehicles such as the Mercedes 770 (“Grosser Mercedes”) and the legendary compressor sports cars of the late 1920s and early 1930s. Yet the same applies also to the Mercedes 170 from 1931, which was the first mass-production passenger car with four independently suspended wheels. After the Second World War, the Mercedes-Benz 300 once again set new standards for prestige limousines. Also, the forerunner of the S-Class, the W 180 from 1954, offered a hitherto unattained smoothness of operation thanks to its independently mounted subframe and new single-joint swing axle. Other landmarks in the history of comfort at Daimler include power-assisted steering and pneumatic suspension (1961), multi-link rear suspension (1982) and Active Body Control ABC (1999). Mercedes-Benz concept vehicles and studies regularly provide a foretaste of how the distraction-free control of numerous vehicle functions might be technically implemented in future model series. In 2011, for example, the visionary “@yourCOMAND” system in the F 125! demonstrated how the display of telematics features can be controlled by gestures, speech and 3D effects. This makes it possible to dispense with complex actions on the part of the driver involving the use of keypads or other input devices. The vehicle’s independently organized Car-to-X communications also contribute to making life easier for the driver. In addition, active PRE-SCAN suspension, which was unveiled in the F 700 concept car in 2007, employs laser sensors to scan the road surface in order to perfectly adjust the vehicle’s active suspension for an especially smooth ride. There is an enormous technological difference between the recent F 125! and F 700 concept vehicles and the Mercedes 35 HP from 1901 – and that also extends as far as automobile comfort. We today would immediately think that an over 100-year-old motor

BRAND VALUE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD v ehicle looked extremely uncomfortable. Yet is that true? Isn’t there a special appeal in how the technology in a vintage car has been rigorously reduced to the bare necessities? The current fascination with historic automobiles is a sign of how the simplicity of a beautiful and rare classic motor car can satisfy our longing for the pure essence of the automobile, just like being behind the wheel of a super sports car that has been stripped down to the basics. Both experiences, each in its own way, offer a high degree of emotional comfort. Comfort, which is such an important factor in our appreciation of an automobile, cannot be measured in absolute terms. There is no fixed formula for calculating it, no defined criteria. One of the reasons for this is that the automobile has evolved into a diverse world of different vehicle models of ever wider differentiation. For instance, driver and passengers expect a luxury limousine to deliver optimally adjusted handling characteristics, perfect ergonomics, a calm and agreeable atmosphere as well as maximum possible assistance from technical systems. Equally, however, the harder suspension and impressive engine roar from a sports car can be counted among the most positive elements in terms of an individual’s sense of comfort. This means that a manufacturer such as Mercedes-Benz, which offers a comprehensive range of vehicle classes, must define a separate concept of optimal comfort for each model series and each vehicle model. However, what unites all of the brand’s different model series is the availability of state-of-the-art technical systems in key areas of modern automobile comfort such as safety, communications and ergonomics.

An individual’s automobile comfort is determined also by the prevailing conditions, such as road quality, traffic density and general development of mobility systems. Current environmental and social debates, alongside technical innovation, design, fashion and popular culture, provide humans with stimuli that influence their perception. Climate, geography and local cultural traditions also play an important role. For instance, a motorist in an upcoming Asian megacity will have different requirements in terms of the comfort of his or her vehicle than a customer who is behind the wheel in a suburb of a northern-hemisphere industrialized country. The focus is always on the need for the car to provide the driver with the best possible assistance. Or, as Keyserling put it in 1905 when referring to the example of a country house, a “machinery of life in harmony.” Nevertheless, Hartmut Sinkwitz sees no fundamental differences between the comfort wishes of Mercedes-Benz customers in different regions of the world. What is crucial, however, is that the specific comfort of a Mercedes-Benz should be valued as an independent attribute by customers in all cultural groups, explains the designer: “A vehicle made by Mercedes-Benz is a strong statement with a very emotive appeal to highly different cultures.” And one of the sources of this fascination is the brand-typical attention to technical details that contribute to the comfort of a generation of vehicles. “For example, the graphic design of the user interfaces in the coming S-Class is characterized by a strong aesthetic of calm,” says Hartmut Sinkwitz, “which is one more way in which Mercedes-Benz helps to make life easier and more relaxing for the driver.”

A SENSE OF COMFORT IS A CONCERT OF THE EMOTIONS Just how difficult it is to give a concrete definition of comfort is made clear by the common practice of describing comfort as the absence of bothersome and unpleasant sensations. This is because the key to a human’s sense of comfort lies in emotions and not in a rational comparison of data. “This kind of perception takes place largely at the unconscious level,” says René Hurlemann, who heads the “Neuromodulation of Emotions” (NEMO) research team at the University of Bonn. “External stimuli first pass through a cascade of processing stages before we become conscious of them as a feeling,” explains the neuroscientist. It is also true that feelings are seldom processed in linear fashion. For example, the emotion of contentment, which is an important factor in the perception of comfort, consists of a variety of components, explains Hurlemann. First, the alarm centers (areas of the brain stem and amygdala) are less active, and the body perception centers (especially the insula) send out a signal of vegetative and muscular relaxation. Secondly, sensations of reward are triggered by the increased activity of centers in the middle brain (especially the striatum). And thirdly, consciousness-related evaluation and control centers (especially subregions of the prefrontal cortex) produce feelings of security, confidence and contentment. The human brain also relies on personal memory to orchestrate this concert of emotions. Often, for example, a specific smell is associated with a certain childhood memory, either positive or negative. This is why, in groundbreaking studies such as “TopFit Truck,” Daimler is using the technique of odor generation in the driver’s cab to promote positivity of mood. 28

HYPERLINK Further information related to this article: technicity.DAIMLER.COM/En/comfort-zone

• INTERVIEW René Hurlemann (University of Bonn) on the human sense of comfort. • VIDEO Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive: How comfort and safety merge.

THREE QUESTIONS TO

Hartmut SINKWITZ, Head of Interior Design at Mercedes-Benz CULTURE Mr. Sinkwitz, do different cultural groups have different requirements in terms of automobile comfort? There are numerous specific requirements based on geographical conditions and cultural traditions. Different regions of the world have even developed their own characteristic forms of access to the digital world and how they use them. Here, the interfaces inside the vehicle must take account of customer preferences. However, the automobile is above all an international consumer good with an independent character. This means that the degree of convergence as regards the requirements of international customers considerably outweighs any regional differences.

VALUES Do customers attach s pecial

PRE-SAFE ® ImpulsE Extended protection features for the front seat belt.

PRE-SAFE ® PLUS can predict an imminent rear impact and triggers occupant protection measures.

importance to the German values embodied in a Mercedes-Benz? Chinese customers, for example, regularly tell us that they especially value the character of Mercedes-Benz vehicles as products of a strong German brand. In this case, we can say that the specific consumption of a brand-name product associated with particular values is part of the customer’s personal comfort.

Digital Which are the comfort features

MAGIC Body control The camera-based suspension technology scans the road ahead and compensates in advance for unevenness in the road surface.

ADAPTIVE HIGHBEAM ASSIST PLUS allows continuous use of high beam without dazzling other vehicles. PRE-SAFE ® BRAKE can detect pedestrians and prevent collisions by means of autonomous braking.

TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

to which customers will attach particular importance in future? The megatrend will be seamless digital networking between driver and automobile. At present, the driver is still indirectly dependent on a mobile phone for connection to the internet. In future, however, the automobile itself will become the digital medium that retrieves information from the internet and communicates with other vehicles and the infrastructure without bothering the driver. 29

R es e a rch for dr i v i ng ple a s ur e

Driving pleasure is a key criterion in choosing and using a car. Daimler researchers carried out a scientific study to establish the influencing factors.

Text Andreas Kunkel

KEYWORDS FACIAL EXPRESSION EMOTIONAL RESEARCH PHYSIOLOGICAL R EACTIONS DR IVER TYPE VOICE CHAR ACTERISTICS

car journey is about much more than merely getting from A to B, transporting objects and bringing people together. But what exactly is that “something extra”? What influences it? And why do premium vehicles, in particular, showcase it to such an extent that developers see not only safety and reliability as bywords, but also choose to focus on lifestyle, flair and “driving pleasure”? To put it another way, which qualities do we define as comfort? In order to determine how safe a vehicle is, it is generally sufficient to collect and verify technical data – even if this poses complex technical problems. Today, there arealso ways of measuring comfort criteria in order to generate comparative values and improve vehicle development. However, this becomes more difficult with equally important “soft” factors, such as driving pleasure. In a unique pilot study, psychologists, IT experts and engineers from the Mercedes-Benz Customer Research Center (CRC) in Böblingen researched how driving pleasure can be measured with a view to further enhancing vehicle attractiveness. In short, it was a quest to find the formula for driving pleasure. “Measuring pleasure is a science in itself,” says psychologist Götz Renner, Head of the Customer Research Center. Unlike the negative symptoms of car driving, such as fatigue or stress, which we can now measure very easily, there is no clear value one can measure for “pleasure.” Human emotions are too complex. “In order to determine how and why positive sensations can be enhanced while driving, we first had to tackle this problem through a combination of different measuring techniques,” explained Renner. For this reason, researchers first had to test the feasibility and relevance of a variety of processes, including facial recognition, voice analysis and psychological questioning, before deriving an initial set of findings. The scientists from the CRC worked closely with experts from the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD) in Rostock and the Technical University of Munich.

MICROSCOPE

THE EMPATHETIC COMPUTER The latest scientific approaches show that machines will increasingly be able to understand humans in the future. This will have many potential benefits. For example, call center hotlines may be able to recognize irritation in a customer’s voice and react appropriately. Computer games will be able to recognize the player’s frame of mind and adapt anxiety/expertise levels accordingly. Above all, reliable recognition of emotions will become increasingly important in professional interactions between man and machine. The on-board computer in an airplane, for example, may be able to pacify an irritated chief flight officer, and the same may be possible in cars: Recognition of a driver’s anger or irritation could activate safety or error resolution programs, play soothing or stimulating music as appropriate, adapt the speech patterns of the navigation system or even transmit emergency signals.

irritated happy sad surprised neutral

MEASURING EQUIPMENT AND VIDEO CAMERA AS TEST DRIVE MONITORS Two different Mercedes-Benz models were selected as test cars for the driving pleasure study: a current vehicle from the C-Class and a predecessor model, the Mercedes-Benz 190 E from 1982. Both vehicles were equipped with a handsfree system (microphone), measuring equipment for vehicle dynamics, contacts for measuring physiological aspects such as heartbeat and skin temperature, and a video camera. Then eight test drivers, both male and female, were given access to a special vehicle proving ground at Boxberg near Würzburg where they drove on various test tracks, including country roads, motorways and curving circuits. In addition to “live” measurements of their physiological reactions, linguistic emotion and facial reactions, all test drivers were intensively 32

debriefed for their impressions after testing. “What surprised us was that sporting leitmotifs are not necessarily at the top of the list when it comes to fun factors,” explained Martin Tischler from the CRC. Speed and ac-

»Sporting leitmotifs are not necessarily at the top of the fun scale.« celeration do not necessarily put drivers in a good mood. The focus was more on relaxed and regular but rapid driving with appropriate power. It was also surprising to discover how much a car’s road controls can help to generate the desired “driving mood.” “In terms of emotional influencing factors, suspension and engine output are very much the key,” said Tischler.

93 % 0 % 9 % 25 % 0 %

In order to perfect the tests and make them as scientifically credible as possible, the team used powerful hardware and specialist software. “We all know that pleasure, and many other basic emotions, are visible on a person’s facial features,” explained Tischler. But the problem is to find a way of making the analysis of facial reactions as automated as possible. So an IT team led by Bernd Radig from the Technical University of Munich developed a system for this very purpose. This system is able to evaluate camera images so that each of the 140 points on the face relevant to facial expression can be recorded and any movements identified. When we laugh, for example, the corners of the mouth move up towards the ears; when we are surprised they form an O-shape and the eyes widen. And if certain previously defined threshold values are exceeded, the software recognizes these movements and identifies the emotion expressed. At least

irritated happy

10 %

irritated

8 %

happy

0 % 92 %

sad

25 %

sad

2 %

surprised

11 %

surprised

9 %

neutral

87 %

neutral

5 %

in principle. “Such reactions are the same in all cultural circles and are therefore unmistakable; the problem is that as humans our facial expressions do not always denote the same things even if we react with similar emotional intensity,” says Radig. ALGORITHMS REGISTER EMOTIONS Therefore, the scientists asked each of the test drivers initially to behave neutrally or to show reactions selectively, to enable calibrating the measuring instruments for the intensity of their physical emotions. Only then could individual values be compared with one another. A second individual factor also had to be fed into the calculations – as far as possible: “Imagine someone gets moist eyes or even begins to cry a little. Is that person crying tears of joy at having won the lottery, or are they being nostalgic or

feeling depressed?” The context here is key – and this presents scientists with a tough challenge – since individual thoughts or even associations conjured up by the landscape cannot be correlated directly with the driving experience. “Our advantage was that we used different vehicles driven by each of the test drivers in the same surroundings. So while the emotional distractions remained basically similar, only the vehicle and its characteristics changed,” said Radig. In addition, the scientists used a trick to intensify the facial expressions of the driver: through contact by mobile phone, i.e. by speaking with someone, facial movements automatically become more expressive. Reactions can then be more easily read by technology. In total around 32 hours of video footage was evaluated by computer software. Each test drive yielded around 60,000 still images and 52 gigabytes of recorded TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

data. The results were irrefutable: Drivers in the new Mercedes-Benz C-Class smiled more and longer than in the 30-year-old Mercedes-Benz 190 E – by up to 48 %. This does not mean that the 190 gave no driving pleasure – simply that, along with the rest of the technology, this had evolved considerably over four vehicle generations. The voice experiments carried out by Mercedes-Benz in parallel to the facial expression recordings to measure driving pleasure demonstrate that pictures do not necessarily have to tell more than the proverbial thousand words. To do this the experts used methods developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research (IGD),which were used to analyze around 1,200 features of speech including pitch, speed and emphasis and subsequently processed to create reliable “acoustic fingerprints.”

BOXBERG TEST TRACK Proving ground for vehicle development 1 HIGH-SPEED OVAL

5 ROUGH ROAD TRACK

3,000 meters in length with two straights and two

Nine different road surfaces for noise, vibrations

curves for very high speeds.

and materials testing.

2 DRIVING DYNAMICS AREA

6 UPHILL TRACKS

Flat, circular area of joint-free asphalt with an overall

Various gradients to test downhill braking and

diameter of 300 meters.

traction control systems.

3 BRAKE MEASUREMENT TRACKS

7 WATER CHUTES

Tracks for testing brakes on various road

Up to one meter deep, the water chutes are

surfaces.

used to test resistance to water intrusion.

4 HANDLING COURSE

8 NOISE TEST TRACK

Variety of curve radii, curve slopes, climbing gradi-

Measurement of drive-by noise using sensitive

ents and downhill slopes for extreme testing.

microphones.

TEST TRACKS AND TEST AREAS 5

The Boxberg proving ground is used by Daimler engineers and designers. The eight test tracks and test areas can also be used to simulate extreme

everyday conditions, in order to gain insights into how to improve vehicles and systems.

2 5

6 3 7

VOICE CHARACTERISTICS AS INDICATORS “The sound of the voice changes according to our emotional state. In general this method is ideal, for example, for recording the emotional development of a customer dialog in a call center, which we can then turn into graphic form on the monitor using analytical software,” explained Jörg Voskamp from IGD. However, in this case the scientists did not have the benefit of two people talking to each other on a specific subject; the test drivers were alone in the vehicles in order to ensure that findings were contaminated as little as possible by external factors. So once again the institute staff used radio contact with the drivers and encouraged them to talk about their feelings regarding each of the test tracks. This “thinking aloud” is a proven procedure in psychology – the key being not what the subjects say, but how they say it. 34

This method also produced findings that clearly demonstrated the positive emotional trend in modern vehicles compared with older models. “However, the interference

»Safety, sportiness and comfort define our perception of driving pleasure.« factor that arises through speech is sometimes so great that some participants felt distracted from the pure pleasure of driving the vehicle,” stated Voskamp. For this reason,the physiological assessments of the Fraunhofer IGD were an important complement. Organs such as the skin or the heart naturally react to feelings and reflect a state of emotional arousal. Here too, however, the thresholds were set relatively high, since ev-

eryone reacts differently and it is not possible to determine the true causesof arousal. Nevertheless, the scientists were fairly confident in their conclusion that the drivers of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class demonstrated positive feelings for 72 %of the test drive. In the older Mercedes-Benz 190 E, on the other hand, driving pleasure was recorded for just 36 % of the test track. With the benefit of hindsight, this is an indicationof just how much and in how many ways vehicles have developed. NOT ALL CONTENTMENT FACTORS CAN BE MEASURED “During the studies we also had to take driver types into account,” explained Martin Tischler from the CRC. Practiced drivers, for example, often experience greater driving pleasure in older vehicles, because the skills experience is more acute – i.e. it provides

»Driving pleasure has come a long way since the 190 E.«

SERIES: W 201 LENGTH: 4,420-4,448 millimeters WIDTH: 1,678-1,706 millimeters HEIGHT: 1,353-1,390 millimeters WHEELBASE: 2,665 millimeters

»C-Class drivers smiled up to 48 % more and for longer.«

SERIES: W 204 LENGTH: 4,581 millimeters WIDTH: 1,770 millimeters HEIGHT: 1,444 -1,449 millimeters WHEELBASE: 2,760 millimeters

more of a “thrill sensation for experienced drivers.” So the higher the level of driving skill, the more difficult the driving task should be if it is to be accompanied by a higher degree of pleasure. In general, however, there is a strong correlation between the vehicle’s premium quality and the driving enjoyment perceived. In addition, the certainty of being able to drive at speed in a safe car ultimately increases driving pleasure much more than any individual exceptional situations. This is also borne out by the interviews which were conducted with the test drivers and fed into the overall evaluation after testing. Statements such as “I didn’t need to worry about safety” or “I felt I was in control,” along with factors such as handling predictability and reliable implementation of driver commands are part of the pleasure formula for a modern car. “The recipe for the right blend ultimately consists of the basic ingredients of sporti-

ness, safety and comfort,” confirmed CRC chief Götz Renner. And these are strongly influenced by safe road control, good longitudinal dynamics, immediacy of response, a general feeling of safety, maximum freedom of movement and a high degree of comfort. In short, the vehicle’s dynamics and agility should be tangible and the driver should be confident of having the vehicle under control at all times. Mercedes-Benz engineers will continue to have a positive influence on all of these aspects during vehicle development and will ensure the right balance between comfort, safety and driving pleasure. But Martin Tischler fears that other pleasure factors remain entirely unaffected by technology. “True happiness is also opening the sunroof and letting in the sunshine. Or having a pleasant and engaging passenger in the front seat. Over both of these we (unfortunately) have no influence.” TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

Toronto Canada’s largest city, the capital of Ontario, a major economic hub and global financial center founded 1793 (as York) area (city) 630 km² population (city)

Things worth knowing in cities where urban life and technological innovations come together in a special way.

2.6 million population (metropolitan region) 5.6 million population density (city) 4,151 inhabitants/km²

Amsterdam The capital and the cultural and economic center of the Netherlands founded around 1275 area (city) 219 km² population (city) 800,000 population (metropolitan region) 1.3 million population density (city) 3,644 inhabitants/km²

VIENNA Austria’s capital and its city with the highest population founded before 881 area (city) 414 km² population (city) 1.7 million population (metropolitan region) 2.5 million population density (city) 4,173 inhabitants/km²

METROPOLIS TO RON TO

Toronto is a magnet for young professionals, and half the city’s population is from outside Canada. The infrastructure is under pressure to undergo rapid ongoing development.

Urban development

Architecture

Local public transport

Toronto is testing European transport concepts: The city’s first “woonerfs,” comprising 6,000 new homes in all, are now arising in the West Don Lands quarter. In this concept, which originated in the Netherlands, the entire neighborhood is a pedestrian priority zone in which vehicles are required to drive slowly. Unlike the Dutch model, which dispenses with sidewalks entirely, the proprietor Waterfront Toronto intends to provide “soft” sidewalks that nevertheless clearly delineate the areas set out for drivers and for pedestrians.

147 skyscrapers are currently under construction in Toronto – a record for North America and twice as many as in New York. 15 of these new buildings will be over 150 meters in height, which is also a record. 14,000 dwellings were under construction at the end of 2012. Architects such as Daniel Libeskind are already hailing the construction in this city as a model for high-density urbanism. The biggest boom is taking place along the Toronto waterfront, where the population has increased by no less than 134 percent over the past ten years.

Toronto’s commuters spend an average of 80 minutes per day in traffic – more than in Los Angeles. The town planners also complain that the old trams unnecessarily impede the flow of traffic in this megacity. The local transit authority TTC has now commissioned the design of completely new trams, which are to enter service in 2014. These 30-meter-long vehicles each have four flexible joints that will enable them to optimally negotiate Toronto’s numerous sharp curves and hills.

Amster daM

The Dutch capital benefits in both economic and cultural terms from its central location within Europe. Its well-developed infrastructure is matched by a high quality of life.

Culture and innovation

Urban development

economy

The futuristic “Eye,” the new building of the Film Museum of the Netherlands, has been the new architectural icon of the city since April 2012. The building was designed by the Viennese architects Delugan Meissl. Last fall, this spectacular venue for the first time hosted the annual PICNIC festival, which ever since 2006 has brought together international business leaders, forwardthinkers, activists, and technology experts in a spirit of cooperation and innovation in the Dutch capital.

The new district of IJburg is gradually arising on seven artificial islands of sand. Here, 45,000 residents will one day be living and working in 18,000 houses and apartments. A decades-old plan that envisages rectangular housing blocks, straight roads and many green spaces and waterways is thus now taking shape. Architectural experiments such as floating houses are expressly welcome in some areas that are not subject to the decisions of a design committee.

Amsterdam will become the world capital of app developers, according to the non-profit platform “Appsterdam” of the former Apple employee Mike Lee, who intends to make the city the economic and creative center of gravity of the app industry. The US-born Lee cites for example European legislation, the free availability of public data, the high number of creative minds and designers, and the generally high quality of life in the Dutch capital as the reasons for his choice of Amsterdam.

v ienna

The population of Vienna is expected to boom in the near future. No wonder: In terms of quality of life and public transport, this metropolis is among the world’s best.

Quality of life

Mobility

Architecture

The consulting firm Mercer recently named Vienna as the world’s most livable city. The renowned British magazine Economist placed only Melbourne in Australia just ahead of the Austrian capital in terms of quality of life in its 2012 rankings. Vienna excels with a low level of environmental pollution, for example, as well as a high proportion of green spaces and recreation areas – about 120 square meters per capita on average. Vienna is thus also one of the greenest among the world’s major cities.

The metropolitan region can expect a massive population increase over the coming years. Nevertheless, the city council has set itself the ambitious goal of becoming world champion in environment-friendly urban mobility. The subway and tram lines are being extended, and part of the new train station is already in operation. At 365 euros, the yearly public transport ticket is unrivaled in terms of affordability, and the public transport share already amounts to about 40 percent. Furthermore, there are already over 100 charging stations for electric vehicles.

Protection legislation prohibits the construction of skyscrapers in the historic city center, but the two Danube City Towers with a height of up to 220 meters are under construction on the outskirts. At 171 meters, the Millennium Tower office complex is the city’s tallest building. On a site measuring about 25 hectares near the new train station, Quartier Belvedere – an entirely new precinct that will include an information and education cluster and constitute part of the new “cultural axis” of the city – is scheduled for completion by 2017.

TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

MOBILITY IN INNOVATION REGIONS San Diego’s City Flag

REPORT The most innovative places on earth are those in which technology, the economy and creativity gel. San Diego is such a place – TECHNICITY finds out about this Californian center, which is well known for its successful transfer from science to start-up companies.

Coordinates of a metropolis CLIMATE San Diego is located in southern California on the coast of the Pacific

SAN DIEGO

Ocean. The climate is mild with an annual average temperature of 17.3°

Celsius. Humidity is at around 69 % on the annual average. With only 30 days of rain per year and 8 hours of sunshine per day on average, California, the most eastern State in the USA truly deserves its name of “Sunshine State.”

Population

Creativity, mobility and quality of life

Source: National Weather Service

1,545

per km2

San Diego has a population of 1.3 million people on an area of 964 square kilometers, and a density of around 1,545 people per square kilometer. This makes San Diego the eighth largest city in the USA. The metropolitan region of San Diego is home to around 3.2 million people on an area of 11,137 square kilometers. Sources: SANDAG, U.S. Census 2010

Text Steffan Heuer

Photography David Magnusson

Population Growth

Sascha Pfläging

henever you hear “San Diego” and “surfing” in the same sentence, you are immediately transported to the endless sandy beaches of California’s southwestern corner, which attracts millions of local residents and tourists. At the break of dawn, professional surfers call up the latest tide and wave forecast on their smartphones before grabbing their wetsuits and surf boards and going into the surf. However, for Thilo Hölscher, a neurologist at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), the combination of terms has a different and more prosaic meaning.

+ 49 % 2000

2050

The population of San Diego grew by 6% between the years of 2000 and 2010 and by as much as 13 % in the metropolitan region. A further increase is forecast for future decades: The number of inhabitants in the city will grow to 1.54 million people by 2020 and to 1.95 million by 2050. This corresponds to an increase of 49% in 50 years. Sources: SANDAG, U.S. Census 2010

Average Age

33.8 < 37.1 The population of San Diego is considerably younger than the rest of the USA, with an average age of only 33.8 compared to the average age of 37.1 years for the rest of the USA. Sources: SANDAG, U.S. Census 2010

Beaches

As always, at 5:30 a.m., the German-born physician is sitting in his kitchen at the computer, sipping one of the many cups of espresso for the day while going through his latest mails. Time is of the essence because his two sons will be awake soon and will want to play with their father before he leaves for his research laboratory at 7:30 a.m. “The hour between 5 and 6 is my time. I can do my correspondence and learn about what my colleagues and friends are up to in Europe,” says the 46-year old, who has lived and worked in San Diego for the last ten years. “When the normal daily business gets going there is no stopping.”

27 km

San Diego’s vast sandy beaches and bays along the Pacific are famous and popular not only among surfers. The city’s coast line covers 27 kilometers from Black’s Beach in the North to La Jolla Cove to Ocean Beach. Many of the beaches such as Windansea Beach or Children’s Pool can be reached by public transport. Source: City of San Diego

PUBLIC TRANSPORT The Metropolitan Transit System offers various means of transport – including rail vehicles.

While his wife gets the three- and five-year-old boys ready for the German kindergarten, Hölscher grabs his rucksack, laptop and mobile and leaves the family’s apartment in the city center. One of the morning jets is flying between the skyscrapers before landing at the nearby city airport. A few minutes later, the academic has opened his laptop on a bench and is online again via his mobile phone making use of the wait. Making good use of time is important to him because working in this metropolis of creativity means one thing: as many personal meetings as possible, rather than relying on phone calls and other electronic means. On this normal day, Hölscher will take part in eight meetings that will go on until 10 p.m. He will clock up around 100 kilometers on foot and by bus, using the university shuttle service, the mobility concept car2go and his own car.

Just after 7:30 a.m., the red and white MTS bus (Metropolitan Transit System) pulls up and Hölscher heads for the UCSD Medical Center in the Hillcrest district, where he has run his own laboratory for research of the therapeutic uses of ultrasound since 2009. “I couldn’t wish for a better place than San Diego,” says the physician as the city bus stops at the university hospital. “The concentration of academics, researchers, entrepreneurs and incredibly smart people from the most diverse areas is amazing. You can find someone who 40

will listen and help with any question, just as you are trying to transform your research project into a start-up, as I am currently doing.” San Diego has become one of the biggest clusters for biotech and life science companies in the USA. Experts estimate that more than 400 such companies are operating in this region – fewer only than those in the Boston area and in San Francisco Bay. The city with a population of about 1.3 million is the beating heart of a rapidly growing metropolitan area of more than 3.2 million people. A RAPIDLY EXPANDING REGION The enormous growth of San Diego’s metropolitan area, which covers more than 11,000 square kilometers – 12 times the size of Berlin – is due to its atypical geography. The dense city center with its skyscrapers around the historic harbor basin is partly surrounded by ten-lane freeways and highways with a wider circle of suburbs and neighboring districts characterized by the usual ‘suburban sprawl’ of detached houses and shopping malls. If you need to get around in these parts, you would have to take a coastal road and get across a canyon or the foothills of the AnzaBorrego desert. This means that San Diego residents on average drive a third more kilometers in their own vehicles than Los Angeles drivers with their well-known car culture. A daily average of around 300,000 vehicles passes San Diego’s major freeways, which are permanently congested during rush hour. “There are many alternatives for getting around, but San Diego, like the rest of southern California, is dominated by the car and was built for the car. We are just beginning to rethink the subject,” said Sherry Ryan, transport researcher for San Diego State University. She is researching the growing number of cyclists who not only cycle up the coast with their expensive bikes on weekends, but actually commute to work on their bicycles every day.

CYCLING NEWLY DEFINED “It is imperative that the transport and city planning of tomorrow can understand exactly who is going to work by bicycle. We never had accurate figures until now,” said Ryan, who had around 40 sensors installed all over San Diego in 2012 in order to count cyclists – the biggest installation of its kind in the USA. One thing is certain: Cyclists are no longer in the minority. Currently, 85% of San Diego residents say that the car is their main means of transport. Only 3% chose public transport and a mere 1% voted the bicycle as their method of transport. Hölscher’s relationship to mobility evidences the noticeable trend towards greater sustainability as researched by Ryan and other transport experts. The constant influx of young white-collar workers has pricked consciences and has led more people to move closer to their workplace and become mobile in a smarter way. During the last decade, tens of thousands of people like the physician have moved to the city center because they like living in a densely populated urban hub. Most of the apartment blocks built during the real estate boom are situated directly along the main bus and tram routes. “We wanted to live in the downtown area. As a young family, this is totally doable,” says Hölscher during a break of a meeting at his laboratory. “The city park is directly outside our front door. We can go for food by foot and are at the beach or at the airport in ten minutes.” When he has time, he likes to go to work by bicycle, which he leaves at the clinic in order to tackle the day’s workload ahead. A staff member from the anatomy department has just delivered 20 skulls to his laboratory. According to Hölscher, he has built up the world’s most comprehensive skull database. The skulls are recorded by a computer tomograph in 3D and measured in a water tank for resonance to ultrasound waves. The data from these sources enables developing a computer model that may help revolutionize the treatment of stroke patients. Currently, ultrasound is used mainly as a diagnostic tool for detection of residue in a vessel or dangerous blood clots in the brain. The aim of Hölscher’s Brain Ultrasound Research Lab (BURL) is to use intelligent software that can enable ultrasound to dissolve lifethreatening aneurysms immediately or medication to be released in a targeted way. “Every human skull is as unique as a fingerprint. If you have enough data, you can quickly find out which therapy is suitable for the individual patient,” explained Hölscher. This is the reason why he has registered his first patent and wants to bring this technology on the market by starting up his own company.

Mobility in San Diego AIrports

San Diego International Airport (“Lindbergh Field”) serves 1.8 million passengers per year with a single runway for take-off and landing. The airport runs international direct flights to Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Japan. Other smaller airports include Montgomery Field (MYF) and Brown Field (SDM). Sources: SDIA, SANDAG, Connect

Road Network Interstate highway 5 connects San Diego from North to South to Los Angeles and goes as far as the northern state of Washington. Interstate highway 15 leads

to the Mexican border 30 kilometers away. Interstate highway 15 heads north via Las Vegas and many other states leading to Canada. Interstate highway 8 connects San Diego to Arizona in the southeast. Traffic The greatest traffic congestion around San Diego is on highways I-5 and I-805, where up to 302,000 vehicles pass through every day.

»San Diego is a city that has been designed for the car. A rethinking has only just begun.« Sherry RYAN, Professor for Town Planning at San Diego State University Bicycle Routes San Diego’s bicycle paths are around 515 miles long (829 kilometers). At 60 public transport stops, there are a total of 872 bicycle parking places. Despite this, cycling is one of the less popular means of transport in the Auto City: Only about 1% of all journeys are taken by bicycle. Sources: SDIA, SANDAG, Connect, U.S. Census

Choice of Transport

86 % of all journeys in San Diego are carried out with one’s own car, compared to 3.1% by public transport. Car miles per day and per person are 14.5 miles in San Diego, which takes the highest place in the state. Los Angeles clocked up 10.5 miles. In comparison, in San

This is also why he has no time for breaks: Business partners and scientists are waiting. At 9:30 a.m. the neurologist gets on the University shuttle bus that takes him to the main campus at UCSD, to the north of San Diego. The journey to La Jolla lasts a good half hour on Interstate 5, passing many steep canyons. UCSD is one of the most important academic institutions in the region with around 29,000 students and scientists who attract more than a billion U.S. dollars per year in public research funds.

Francisco only 4.5 miles are covered by car and the mean for all of California is 13 miles per day per person. Sources: GENI: Sustainable Transportation for San Diego

Education and Research Research Cluster

MOBILity map

A total of 83 research institutions are located in San Diego, many of which are world renowned: Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute, SanfordBurnham Institute for Medical Research, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO), California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) as well as the research institute of the U.S. Marine SPAWAR. Sources: Connect, EDC

Colleges and Universities

100,000 Over 100,000 students attend colleges and universities in San Diego. The most significant educational institutions are the UC San Diego (29,000 students), the University of San Diego (8,300), San Diego State University (31,000), San Marcos State University (10,300), the National University (22,700) and Point Loma Nazarene University (3,500). U.S. state funding for research in San Diego amounted to USD 1.14 million in 2011. Source: EDC

Economy and Innovation Patents Between 2007 and 2011 San Diego generated an annual average of 3,165 new patents. Thus, the city ranks in eighth place out of 358 cities in the USA. An average of 2.3 patents per 1,000 employees are generated (13th place). Source: Brookings Institution, 2013

» San Diego has a quality of life that is unrivalled. Creative people get many offers.« Mark CAFFERTY, President and CEO of the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation

San Diego attracted USD 927 million of venture capital in 2011. In 2012, the figure grew to USD 1.12 billion. The biggest beneficiaries were biotech companies (48% in the first quarter of 2012), as well as the industry and energy sectors (39%). Sources: Connect, PwC Money Tree Survey

Gross Domestic Product Between 2001 and 2010, the gross domestic product of the metropolitan area of San Diego grew from USD 114.37 billion to USD 171.57 billion: a continuing growth trend that was only interrupted in the crisis year 2009 (USD 168.98 billion). Source: Statista

NERVE CENTER Thilo Hölscher’s research laboratory is the heart of his daily business – but what really counts are his personal contacts and his mobility around the city.

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS The daily activities of the scientist involve research projects and the business plan for the start-up company.

CAMPUS TO CAMPUS Thilo Hölscher usually gets from campus to campus of the University of California San Diego (UCSD) by foot or with the university’s shuttle bus.

DAILY MOBILITY As a scientist and start-up founder with countless face-to-face appointments, Thilo Hölscher is highly mobile. On an average day, he covers a hundred kilometers or more, frequently made up of many short trips around the city. Public transport, car2go and his own two feet are the cornerstone of getting from A to B. For longer journeys out of the city, for example going to Mexico with his family for dinner, he uses his own car.

TECHNICITY.DAIMLER.COM

Life and Work INCOME With an average household income of USD 63,198 in 2010, San Diego is significantly above the country average of USD 52,762.

Sources: SANDAG, U.S. Census, CIA World Factbook

The resulting success and accompanying researcher and pioneering spirit are inevitable. According to university calculations, UCSD graduates have formed 160 start-up companies. UCSD is only one of a handful of large college institutions in San Diego with a total student body of 104,000 – a main contributor to the young average age of just 33.8 years. In addition, 83 public and

Employment Market I The employment market in San Diego is heavily influenced by the U.S. military base and the many educational institutions. The United States Navy is the largest employer of the city with 54,000 employees (a) followed by the University of California San Diego with 27,406 employees (b). The city’s biggest companies include two companies in the healthcare sector, Sharp HealthCare (14,924 employees) (c) and Kaiser Permanente (7,101) (d), as well as the Telco company Qualcomm (11,500) (e) headquartered in San Diego. Source: San Diego Comprehensive Annual Fiscal

(a) (b) (c) (d) (e)

Report 2011

Employment Market II

private world-renowned research facilities have also joined forces such as Scripps Research Institute, Salk Institute, Sanford-Burnham Institute for Medical Research and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Many of the discoveries made here have turned ventures into large companies, which have established themselves along Torrey Pines Mesa on the edge of La Jolla.

Around 6,000 “Innovation Economy” companies employ almost 140,000 employees. Of this total, 3,000 companies are in the areas of wireless and mobile communications, web servic-

DIVERSITY OF KNOWLEDGE IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS

es, data analytics and software. Biotech and Life Sciences have another 600 companies. The largest line of business here is in telecommunications with 2,000 companies and approximately 65,000 employees. Sources: EDC, Connect

Real Estate Prices San Diego is among the most expensive real estate markets in the USA and ranks fourth in a national comparison of house and apartment prices. Real estate prices are higher only in San Jose and San Francisco as well as New York.

4th rank

Source: Statista

Green Areas Around 20% of San Diego’s land area is covered by parks and recreation areas. San Diego thus ranks fifth together with New York City in a National City comparison. The uncontested winner: Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska with its 46% of green areas.

Source: Statista

International Appeal San Diego has a constant flow of national and international skilled professionals. For example, half of all doctoral candidates at

“San Diego doesn’t have one dominant cluster, it’s a collection of diverse knowledge. Our success lies in the diversity even if outsiders don’t notice this right away,” said Mark Cafferty, Head of the regional business development corporation EDC. He splits San Diego’s economy into three large sectors. More than 150,000 people work for the U.S. military where the Pacific fleet is based. The second-largest cluster is tourism, which employs around 160,000 people due to its beautiful Pacific location and mild climate. EDC is paying close attention to the ‘Innovation Economy’ which includes information technology, telecommunications, life sciences and cleantech. This third sector employs around 140,000 people in around 6,000 companies. Cleantech companies benefit from the close proximity to the desert since they use solar power and research biofuels. Since its foundation in 1985, Qualcomm, a chip manufacturer for mobile communications, has become the city’s largest private employer. The company employs 12,000 people in San Diego and according to a recent study is catalyst for the booming telecommunications sector of 65,000 jobs. “One in twelve jobs here is in the telecom cluster,” reported Cafferty. “This innovation power is reaching completely new areas such as wireless health.” It’s all about the interface between wireless communications and networked healthcare. This new area has been researched by its own research institute, West Wireless Health Institute, since the summer of 2012.

UCSD come from overseas. The Asian (+24 %) and Hispanic (+21%) population groups have grown greatly over the last ten years.

START-UPS ARE IN TREND

Sources: City of San Diego, U.S. Census 2010

This is the very area that Hölscher’s start-up will be part of. His software, which supports the use of therapeutic ultrasound, will also be offered as a mobile solution to be installed in ambulances and rescue helicopters. He has just ended his meeting at the Sulpizio Cardiovascular Center in La Jolla and is sitting in the shuttle back 44

university city marine corps air station miramar

TRANSPORT ROUTES AND TRAVEL TIMES IN SAN DIEGO

805

City highway Tram Road

la jolla

Green areas/parks

Average travel time to work by place of residence 25-35 minutes

15-20 minutes

20-25 minutes

< 15 minutes

montgomery field 805 5

8 UCSD Medical center University Hospital

North Pacific

hillcrest

balboa park

san diego international airport

USA San Diego

New York

port of san diego

to his laboratory at 10:30 a.m. After a meeting with his team and a quick sandwich, the physician takes out his smartphone and reserves a smart fortwo electric drive from car2go. He has an appointment at a biotech company at 12:30 p.m. The company is involved in research for improving chemotherapy on brain tumors by using targeted ultrasound gently, but more effectively. “Currently, we are still research partners, but they could quickly become our first customer,” says Hölscher as he unlocks the car with his light blue car2go card. “I can’t get everywhere by bus, especially on the other side of town or around the campuses, so car sharing is perfect here.” A Foretaste of the Sharing Economy Daimler introduced its mobility concept car2go in San Diego in November 2011 with 300 electric drive smarts. “After the first 100 days we already had 5,000 members and now have around 12,000. The number of weekly trips has risen from the initial 500 to almost 6,000. This proves that people have been waiting for a mobility solution like this,” said Walter Rosenkranz, who is building up the Service in close coordination with the city administration. Rosenkranz has lived in San Diego for 18 years and studied the concept of car sharing at business school. “I understood the basic principle but when I read about car2go I knew that it is the future. It’s a foretaste of the sharing economy where resources are used intelligently.” The fleet of electric smarts in San Diego and other cities is a novelty for North America. “Before car2go there were around 800 electric cars in San Diego. Our fleet increased this number by 40 % in one full sweep,” said the car2go manager. Even more importantly, this is the first time ever in a North American city that the residents of an entire city have had access to an electric car and can experience emission-free driving. Apart from the 100 public charging stations recently installed by the city council, car2go has its own main charging depot. In a converted

Surfin’ USA The living standard in San Diego is high, not least due to its close proximity to the Pacific Ocean. The 27-kilometer stretch of beaches on the edge of the city attracts surfers and swimmers in the early morning hours.

San diego

New York*

Los Angeles**

Second-largest city in California

Most populous region

Second-largest U.S. region

and eighth-largest in USA

of the USA

after New York

RESIDENTS (metropolitan area):

3.1 million

18.9 million

13.2 million

PASSENGER JOURNEYS on short-range transit (p.a.):

102 million

4.1 billion

665.8 million

979 million kilometers

34 billion kilometers

5.5 billion kilometers

1.7 million

9.1 million

7.3 million

5 hours

6.75 hours

8 hours

37 hours

59 hours

61 hours

in COMPARison Status:

KILOMETERS travelled on short-range transit (p.a.): TRAVELLERS AT PEAK TIMES: RUSH HOUR DURATION (per day): DURATION OF LATENESS per commuter (p.a.):

* incl. Newark, ** incl. Long Beach and Santa Ana; Source: TTI, 2012 Annual Urban Mobility Report

Daimler in California warehouse in San Diego’s trendy East Village district, 30 smarts can be charged simultaneously. East Village is a great example of how we are moving towards a more urban lifestyle supported by a perfect mobility mix of walking, public transport and car sharing. Until a few years ago, this was a rundown district of a dozen blocks on the eastside of the city. Today, the car2go office is brimming with life. It has become a small art and design hub surrounded by apartment towers and a new baseball stadium. And that’s not all: The city is already discussing a new concept “IDEA District” (“Innovation – Design – Education – Arts”) which will be the center of an ecosystem of large technology companies and an abundance of start-ups. “Forecasts predict that the downtown city population will rise from 60,000 to 90,000,” said EDC Head Cafferty. “Those who move to the city need a job, affordable accommodation and appropriate transport.” car2go manager Rosenkranz expects that the number of charging stations will grow accordingly. car2go San Diego is considering expanding its operating area. This is music to Hölscher’s ears. He is a regular user of car2go and drives out of the operating area to La Jolla in order to be mobile in the densely connected hub of research facilities and biotech companies. “It beats using my own car by miles,” says the physician, as his rented smart fortwo electric drive is being charged directly in front of his office in the futuristic looking Engineering Faculty build-

Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America (MBRDNA)

Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America operates a number of important research and development centers in California. In addition, it has an office for political affairs in California’s Design Studio

seat of government, Sacramento.

Group Research And Advanced Engineering: The competence center for Digital Life, App-development and Advanced User Experience Design in Palo Alto was founded in 1995: It was here that the Digital DriveStyle App for the iPhone, the smart drive App for the smart fortwo and the DICE (Dynamic and Intuitive Control Experience) were designed and engineered. Advanced ExteriOr Design Studio The design studio in Carlsbad, approximately 30 kilometers north

Los Angeles

of San Diego, is responsible for the exterior design of the Biome and Vision Ener-G-Force studies,

Carlsbad

the research vehicles F 800 Style and F 125!, and the second generation Mercedes-Benz CLS.

ing at one of the three new charging stations while he holds his afternoon campus meetings. Meanwhile, it’s 4 p.m. There is still one last meeting at a local attorney’s office specializing in services for start-ups. “People here are only too happy to give entry to start-up founders like myself to their network – even if they come from a different sector,” says Hölscher. He has left the campus and is now driving south along the coastal road.

San Diego Tijuana

Long Beach TechCenter The competence center with 39 employees carries out emissions and durability tests as well as further development of fuel cell technology.

» car2go represents a great step forward for environmentally friendly transport in San Diego.«

A Helping hand for the next generation of start-up companies

Walter ROSENKRANZ, Business Development Manager of car2go San Diego

The flat buildings of the technology companies give way to opulent villas with ocean views. “Those who make it big here, and there are quite a few,” says Hölscher glancing to the left and right of the windscreen over the wealthy neighborhood, “feel duty-bound to give the younger generation a helping hand. I have never experienced this anywhere else before.” A local businessman, who is successful in the telecommunications branch, is helping the neurologist to raise the first million U.S. dollars of starting capital and to put him on the right track in terms of organization for starting up a company while the university takes care of the licensing of intellectual property rights.

car2go San Diego Since 2011, Daimler’s innovative concept car2go has also been represented in San Diego, California. The first electric car sharing program in North America offers its customers the chance for spontaneous local emission-free driving in one of 300 smart fortwo electric cars. Other car2go electro fleets are operating in Amsterdam, Portland, Stuttgart and Ulm, among others.

At 6:30 p.m. Hölscher parks the smart electric drive in the city center and goes to his apartment, where his family is waiting for him. Since his wife comes from Tijuana, which is directly on the other side of the border, the physician spends one or two days per week in Mexico. To get there for dinner on time, he gets into his own car as a passenger for the first time all day. Around 35,000 vehicles per day pass the border at San Ysidro into a city of 1.4 million people, many of whom are commuters. On top of this, thousands of pedestrians take the tram from downtown San Diego which stops directly at the border crossing. Those who have children and businesses on both sides of the border can save themselves long waiting times at the strongly watched border if they have the coveted special pass for the express lane. “This allows us to pop to the grandparents with the children for the evening or to go out in Tijuana,” says Hölscher. Just after 10 p.m. the family is on its way back to San Diego. “Being so close to Mexico with its completely different culture and way of life is one of the many big advantages of this vibrant city.”

T - Interview

»The mentality to take a risk.« Johann JUNGWIRTH, President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America TRAILBLAZER Mr. Jungwirth, to what extent is California on the topic of innovative, sustainable mobility a forerunner in the USA? California is an established hub of innovative and sustainable mobility. The best examples are the specifications and requirements for emissions and consumption, which are the highest worldwide and are being adopted from many other states and Californian companies such as Tesla, Fisker Automotive or Wheelz developing innovative vehicles and completely new mobility solutions.

Trends As Head of R&D for Mercedes-Benz North America, which Californian trends are worth paying attention to in your view? There are three trends that I follow with great attention: one, developments surrounding electric vehicles, two, car sharing and three, the leading importance of the law on autonomously driven vehicles. Along with Nevada and Florida, California is one of only three U.S. states where laws have been passed on this. With “Mercedes-Benz Intelligent Drive” we are leaders in this area. Our new E-Class, which had its international premiere in Detroit in early 2013, is already offered with a (semi) autonomous driving feature for complex traffic situations. MENTALITY Will the Golden State’s plans or political goals which

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it implements sooner or later also become a topic of worldwide debate in the search for the mobility of tomorrow? Silicon Valley is a legendary heartland of innovation for the world. As the first automobile manufacturer, Daimler has been present with its own R&D Center in Palo Alto since 1995. However, innovation is a bit like start-ups and not every idea is strong enough to be a worldwide success. However, California combines a number of important factors that are needed if new ideas are to become reality: The mentality to take a risk on something new and to be open to new ways of doing things, coupled with great creativity and, finally, the will to take risks and invest in the untried. This is how many innovations “made in California” finally succeed and gain worldwide recognition.

METROPOLITAN California has three large urban centers, San Francisco to the north, and Los Angeles and San Diego in the southern part of the state. What do the three centers have in common and what distinguishes them from one another? One thing the three areas have in common is the focus on innovation and new ideas on consumer goods and electronics. This has a direct impact on mobility, be it the support of infrastructure

CAR CULTURE Speaking of “Car Culture”: What trends can you pick up on in Southern California? Los Angeles is not only one of the top three sales markets for Mercedes-Benz in the USA. This regional area with its many freeways and highways, recognizable from films, along the Pacific Ocean has special significance when it comes to car culture. It is a melting pot of cultures and offers a uniquely creative environment in which new trends are generated and tried out: How do people live with their own cars, how do they make cars a part of their personal lifestyles? It is well worth keeping your finger on the pulse in order to recognize and quickly implement new developments, particularly in the area of Advanced Exterior Design.

projects or making the automobile electric to hydrogen filling stations for fuel cell vehicles or Car-to-X-communication, the communication between vehicles and the surrounding infrastructure. It provides an advantage when creating new car sharing models. However, there are very definite differences between San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego due to the geographic conditions and climate of each city, as well as because of their population density and urban character. Each city is influenced by its own typical transport network and traffic flows. This leads to different mobility patterns, such as how long people travel to work and the mix of transport means used.

LOCATION What does California mean to Daimler in terms of early identification of trends? California is very important to Daimler in many ways. We operate three important R&D centers in the state, the first being our competence center for Digital Life, Appdevelopment and Advanced User Experience Design in the heart of Silicon Valley, where the high concentration of innovative companies and start-ups in the area allows us to reach almost all business partners in half an hour. Secondly, we have an Advanced Exterior Design Studio in Carlsbad north of San Diego, where our designers work closely with their German colleagues on the development of completely new concepts, defining innovative technical layouts and implementing optimum design solutions for the real world. The third location is our TechCenter in Long Beach near Los Angeles, the heartland of American “Car Culture.” Along with these locations, we also have a small office in the political seat of the state Sacramento, which deals with political topics.

curriculum vitae Johann Jungwirth President and CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America (MBRDNA) since 2009 responsible for all R&D activity of Mercedes-Benz in North America, including infotainment and telematics, customer research, user interfaces, technology and society worked for R&D at Mercedes-Benz and Daimler for over 18 years

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PROJEcTOR TOGETHER RATHER THAN SEPARATELY

SHARED SPACE The idea behind the vision of future city traffic is the joint use of public spaces with largely fluent boundaries. Pedestrians, cyclists, cars, public transit and commercial vehicles: All share the city. In place of traffic control by means of traffic lights and signs, the rule of mutual respect and direct communication among road users of equal standing applies. This creates new social spaces and improves traffic safety.

TECHNICITY 02 2013 In the next issue you can read about the International Finance Centre (IFC) in Hong Kong – a hub of urban mobility where a diversified transportation mix meets trendsetting urban planning.