Ride into the future (2015)

s OLED l i g h t s t o u c h - f r e e c o n t r o l v a r i a b l e i n t e r i o r h y d r o g e n d r l u t i o n s o l a r m o t o r w ay s a u t o n o m o u s t r a n s p o r t c a r s h a r i n g m a c g i n g p a r k i n g a s s i s ta n t s w e i g h t r e d u c t i o n n e w m at e r i a l s i n t e l l i g le interior hydrogen drive green future lower emissions indust n s p o r t c a r s h a r i n g m a c h i n e ‘ s d i l e m m a m o b i l e e n t e r ta i n m e n t w i r n n e w m at e r i a l s i n t e l l i g e n t s y s t e m s OLED l i g h t s t o u c h - f r e e c o n r e l o w e r e m i s s i o n s i n d u s t r i a l r e v o l u t i o n s o l a r m o t o r w ay s a u t o b i l e e n t e r ta i n m e n t w i r e l e s s c h a r g i n g p a r k i n g a s s i s ta n t s w e i g h t h t s to u c h - f r e e co n t r o l va r i a b l e i n t e r i o r h y d r o g e n d r i v e g r e e n m o t o r w ay s a u t o n o m o u s t r a n s p o r t c a r s h a r i n g m a c h i n e ‘ s d i l e m m a s s i s ta n t s w e i g h t r e d u c t i o n n e w m at e r i a l s i n t e l l i g e n t s y s t e m s OLED hydrogen drive green future lower emissions industrial revolu s h a r i n g m a c h i n e ‘ s d i l e m m a m o b i l e e n t e r ta i n m e n t w i r e l e s s c h a r g a l s i n t e l l i g e n t s y s t e m s OLED l i g h t s t o u c h - f r e e c o n t r o l v a r i a b l e s i n d u s t r i a l r e v o l u t i o n s o l a r m o t o r w ay s a u t o n o m o u s t r a n s p o r e n t w i r e l e s s c h a r g i n g p a r k i n g a s s i s ta n t s w e i g h t r e d u c t i o n n e w to u c h - f r e e co n t r o l va r i a b l e interior hydrogen drive gre t i o n s o l a r m o t o r w ay s autonomous transpo ment wireless charging park telligent systems rior hydrogen drive green future lowe r w ay s a u t o n o m o u s transport car sha wireless charging p a r k i n g a s s i s ta n e n t s y s t e m s OLED lights touch-fr en future lower emissions indus transport car sharing machin arging parking a s s i s ta n t s w e m s OLED l i g h t s touch-free c uture lower emissions in s transport car sharin s charging parking as ntelligent s y s t e m s OLED hydrogen drive gr volution solar m chine‘s dilemm s ta n t s weigh OLED light ogen driv tion sol car sh ss c n

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isions of the future have been fascinating mankind since the beginning of time. We want to know what the world around us will be like 20, 50, or 100 years from now. What do you think Laurin & Klement envisaged when they were imagining what today‘s cars might look like? Did they dream that one day we would use computers and the Internet in our everyday life? Probably not.

The current speed of technological development is much more dramatic and is becoming increasingly faster. Take car radios, for example. Twenty years ago, your radio offered several FM channels, and if you had a more expensive one, you could listen to audio tapes, too. Today‘s radios come with a navigation functionality, can communicate online and understand your voice commands. And what will they offer 20 years from now?

It is vital for people and, predominantly, companies to keep looking into the future, because only those able to identify new trends and take the right routes can succeed. This is also true of the automotive industry, which, no doubt, is facing one of the biggest changes in its history. As the importance of digitisation increases, customers‘ needs and expectations are growing, too. New business models are appearing, and the status of cars in general is changing.

New brands, so far mainly associated with IT, are entering the market. People want to get from A to B fast, safely and comfortably, but also cheaply, environmentally friendly and with all possible comfort and entertainment offered by today‘s world of modern technologies. Cities are not inflatable, so people start talking about autonomous cars designed to arrive when summoned and to take you wherever you need to go: a driverless car shared with other people, a car you only use when you need it.

The pressure from government institutions is also growing.

Environmental regulations and limits are strict. They force car manufacturers to look for alternative drive systems and invest large amounts of money in their development efforts.

That creates conflict, however, with customers‘ demand for cheap products. Traditional manufacturers therefore have to respond flexibly, and extensive innovations and bold visions are the key to success. The time required to develop a new model is about seven years, and the automotive industry is expected to change dramatically by 2030.

Let us therefore look at what the near and the more distant future of the automotive world hold for us. We are going to focus on the product itself, as well as its development and production, and also the transport infrastructure whose further development is vital for the cars of tomorrow. Let us take a summer ride to the future together.

Have a good read!

Internal Communications team

Contents Technologies Intelligent roads - more than just traffic cameras Cars of the future - driven by someone else Connectivity - more important than driving properties?

Mobile entertainment to make long trips more pleasant Parking without a problem is no longer just a dream

4–5 6–7 8–9 10–11 12–13

Product Engines of the future – more powerful and more fuel-efficient 14–15 Car occupant and pedestrian safety comes first 16–17 Car interiors. Will they become sitting rooms on wheels?

18–19

Drive systems Green future without petrol and diesel CO2 emissions will decrease substantially

20–21 22–23

Development and production The Fourth Industrial Revolution has already started Augmented reality. Will it make us better drivers?

3D printer - soon in every garage

24–25 26 27

TECH NOLO GIES technologies

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Intelligent roads more than traffic cameras

70 000 sensors and 6,500 traffic cameras have been installed on Austrian motorways and interconnected to form an intelligent network.

Using this system, traffic controllers are faster and more flexible in dispatching emergency vehicles to accident sites, providing drivers with information and dynamically changing speed limits to prevent congestion.

Experts have been talking about intelligent motorways since the 1980s.

Every prosperous country today has a large number of roads, and governments find it extremely difficult to secure enough money in their budgets even just for basic maintenance. Many motorways are fitted with traffic cameras and under-surface sensors that measure traffic density, which makes it possible for road control centres to respond flexibly and send accident and road block warnings, among others. However, all that happens with a delay, i.e. at the point when the roads are already congested.

Intelligent navigation systems fitted with independent SIM cards may be

the answer. Communicating with the control centre, these systems are designed to set the route dynamically, according to the traffic situation. The number of roads fitted with intelligent technologies is expected to grow in the future. Good examples include luminous lines to mark out traffic lanes (absorbing luminous energy at daytime and then emitting green-and-yellow light at night-time), smart traffic lights to communicate with cars and control on-site traffic, etc. Further development of all these systems will take a long time, and intelligent vehicles will therefore come sooner than intelligent roads. 

Solar motorways

Dutch way

Scott Brusaw‘s ambition is to build a solar motorway across the USA that would recharge electric vehicles in motion. So far, he has raised USD 2.2 million, and this money will be used for a small car park to test this new technology.

Daan Roosegaarde came up with quite a few road network improvement ideas several years ago. What about a lane-and-shoulder illumination system that would be charged in daytime and then illuminate roads in areas with no electricity at night-time? Or roads to display fluorescent snowflake symbols whenever the temperature falls below 4 degrees Celsius? Simple, but rather expensive ideas.

Fortunately, Roosegaarde received support from Heijman, one of the Netherlands‘ leading suppliers, and together they have built a 150-metre motorway section that features all these innovations. At the average motorway speed, this section is covered in five seconds, but it is the proverbial first swallow and also a demonstration of how incredibly expensive it would be „make asphalt intelligent“.

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Cars of the future driven by someone else

?

Machine‘s dilemma The following is one of the situations that can be used as an example of problems that might occur in connection with driverless vehicles: A group of children are walking down a pavement. An artificial intelligence-driven vehicle is moving down one of the lanes, while a lorry that has gotten completely out of control is dashing in the opposite direction.

The lorry gets into the car‘s lane. Will the artificial intelligence make the car get out of its lane to the pavement and thus endanger the children‘s lives, or will it let the two vehicles crash, relying on the car‘s safety systems?

The question of how to programme machines for such situations has not been answered yet.

technologies

Autonomous driving represents one of the most dramatic changes in the past few decades and also one of the biggest challenges for the automotive industry. The vision under which your car becomes a chauffeur to take you to the place you want to go will drastically change the overall perception of transport. Cars capable of taking over the parking manoeuvres, dodge an obstacle, or automatically keep in your lane are already available. Concepts that enable passengers to gain control of steering if necessary (or „agreed“) already exist, and concepts where the current driving format is changed substantially, i.e. the driver becomes a „mere passenger“, are subject to extensive development. Autonomous driving is supposed to dramatically change the approach to the time spent driving – rather than a means

of transport, cars are supposed to be seen as places for various leisure-time activities. One of the key benefits is high travel comfort, which comes at the cost of losing most of the delight from driving that many people have been enjoying until now. The new system is expected to increase road safety and, to a large extent, reduce the number of accidents caused by drivers‘ fatigue and lack of concentration. To make the system work effectively, roads need to be fitted with utility networks to provide connection between vehicles and transport systems.

Further, the current legislation that is based on the Vienna Road Traffic Convention will need to be revised and updated, as its current wording does not provide for driverless cars, and accident-related liability matters will need to be addressed, too. 

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Advancement through Intelligence Audi has been developing autonomous driving technologies for years. Using a specially adapted driverless vehicle, the brand has already hit race circuits - in fact, this is the „medium autonomous stage“, where the driver has to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times in order to take over in case the system fails. The vehicle can cope with motorway driving and navigate through busy city traffic.

Autonomous transport is expected to start in cities, and one of the concepts involves the use of toll gates to let you in only if you switch your car to the self-driving mode.

45 %

The latest-generation Volkswagen Group vehicles show a 45 percent decrease in the number of the most frequently occurring accidents - small bumps caused by incautious driving in jams. Fitted to a growing number of vehicles, the Front Assist system is designed to prevent such accidents effectively.

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Volkswagen performed its first autonomous driving tests in 2008 with a Touareg in the Mojave Desert.

How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? „Let‘s presume there will always be situations where the driver will want to relax by driving,“ says Jan Obermann of TML – Technological Development; Driver‘s Assistance Systems. „On the other hand, one of the trends we are pursuing is this: There are frequently used routes that simply call for implementation of systems designed to take over the driver‘s leading role, and our primary ambition is to offer solutions designed to drive vehicles in traffic jams and perform parking manoeuvres. Technology only plays a partial role in implementing driverless vehicles. Other factors include finance and legislation, and the social impacts of driverless technologies are an aspect that so far has not really been discussed very extensively. What work will people do if mobile systems do not require their involvement?“

Connectivity more important that driving properties?

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kg

kilograms was the weight of the world‘s first mobile phone built into a car. Launched in 1946, this solution by Bell was not really reliable, but it represented huge progress in the area of telephone communications.

Look at the Connected Golf: Youtu.be/NPbZ53iVDbo

Audi Chairman Rupert Stadler said this May that rather than driving entities, the cars of the future would be more oriented towards connectivity. Up until recently, the only reason to connect phones with cars was hands-free communication, but telephones have made giant leaps forward over the past few years; the days when they were used just for making phone calls and sending texts have passed, and „cooperation“ between phones and cars therefore makes perfect sense. For example, with the SmartGate and SmartLink systems, you do not have to abandon your favourite apps, even when driving your ŠKODA. The SmartLink enables the user to view and control smartphone applications on the car‘s infotainment display, and the SmartGate technology makes it possible to view, save and control (in

a mobile mode) selected vehicle data in a variety of smartphone applications.

On top of that, both these systems offer a big potential for further growth: Let‘s imagine you‘ve planned a trip to the airport in your calendar. You get into your car and, as you start setting the navigation, the phone asks you whether you are going to the airport, and an „affiliate“ application informs you of the weather conditions at your destination.

Specialists responsible for developing these systems keep thinking how they could simplify phone-car interactions. So far, the SmartLink technology requires cable connection, but that is expected to change in the future. In addition to wireless data transmissions, experts already talk about docking stations where you can place your mobile phone, just like with premium home hi-fi systems. 

The near future of „online“ vehicles Volkswagen presented „the Connected Golf“, a vision of the car of the near future, this year in January at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Using the latest-generation infotainment platform (MIB II), the new progressive interface control system combines a huge spectrum of apps, smart phones, tablets and smart watches to form a single unit. Moreover, the Connected Golf features a large number of other innovations. For example, the car‘s navigation system automatically identifies frequently used routes, even when it is switched off (e.g. daily travel to work), warning the user of possible traffic complications and offering alternative, low-traffic routes.

technologies

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Rather than driving entities, cars of the future will be more oriented towards connectivity, e.g. in connection with autonomous driving.

Customers will simply require that.

The same apps in your mobile phone and your car – no longer impossible.

Cars to communicate with each other will make city navigation faster.

Industry experts have a long-term vision of cars that communicate with each other and connect to the city infrastructure. People will use various modes of transport for their everyday trips (as-needed basis) and will share cars based on integrated connectivity systems.

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How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? New connectivity solutions will make it possible to connect vehicles much more effectively with the world that surrounds them. „Integrated online services will offer higher user comfort and safety“, says Martin Sodomka of TMI. „For example, your vehicle will be able to call for help automatically in case of an accident, your service centre will remotely analyse and eliminate a defect using a software update, the navigation system will view panoramic photos known from the Google StreetView service, etc. – all that on a platform designed for flexible service extensions. One of the long-term visions is centred on new mobility concepts for those who instead of owning a car want to use one on an as-needed basis (Car Sharing, Car-On-Demand) – again, based on integrated connectivity.“

Mobile entertainment to make long trips more pleasant If there is any area where it is extremely difficult to envisage trends even for just a few years ahead, it is applications and the possibilities of connecting smart mobile devices with cars, as well as with other home and office equipment. ŠKODA AUTO keeps up with modern technologies, and mobile applications such as MotorSound and LittleDriver designed

to entertain car occupants and make their long trips more pleasant are an important part of the brand‘s development efforts. On the practical side, the ŠKODA Drive app monitors and evaluates the driver‘s driving style to highlight inefficiencies and thus help reduce travel costs, as well as CO2 emissions. 

Cars connected with smart phones and tablets have become a reality; smart watches are the next stage.

How does the new Audi tablet work?

Youtu.be/A23fHWsjuTM

Special tablet from Audi In its new Q7, Audi has presented a special tablet designed in cooperation with Google. Why? Ordinary tablets did not pass the crash tests, and therefore Audi produced its own tablet, which can be removed from the rear seat’s backrest, is perfectly integrated into the MMI entertainment system and is also geared towards two-way communication - the rear-seat passengers can set their own route for the navigation system and then send the route to the driver‘s display for approval or simply send data from their mobile phone to the onboard system by using NFC technology – all they need to start the transmission is place their phone near the brand‘s logo on the tablet.

technologies

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In some vehicles, you won‘t find a CD player anymore, and the radio, one of the main sources of entertainment and information for the driver, is also quite likely to disappear one day. Most channels can be tuned in online using the onboard Internet functionality.

So far, the trend is going towards hybrid systems that combine FM and Internet radio, for example, and automatically select the best available broadcast source.

Wireless charging Modern phones consume big amounts of energy, and wireless in-car charging is therefore one of the technological solutions expected to arrive soon. All the user needs to do in order to start the charging and wirelessly connect with the onboard system is to place the phone on a special pad.

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Wireless connection and Internet onboard – car-tablet cooperation in the near future.

Android app demos: Unblocker logic game and traffic rules practice simulator.

Parking without a problem is no longer just a dream Do you know jokes about blonde girls not knowing how to park a car properly? Research shows that parking, whether angle or parallel, is a problem for many men, too. Modern cars are fitted with various assistants available to less confident drivers - parking sensors are found in vehicles across all market segments, and rear parking cameras are becoming standard.

Advanced systems combine several cameras to create perfect vision all around the car (360-degree cameras).

You can even check the sides of your car, which is particularly useful during parallel parking. This, however, is not where modern parking ends - on the

contrary. Parking assistants geared to park the car more or less themselves (both angle and parallel parking) have been available in ŠKODA vehicles for years now. All you have to do is activate the assistant - the system does most of the work for you, and you just engage reverse/bottom gear and depress the brake and accelerator pedals - the responsibility of selecting the appropriate trajectory lies with the system.

But even this is not the final stage.

The development of systems designed to take over complete responsibility for the parking manoeuvre is already underway... 

The Volkswagen Group‘s first-generation parking assistant, capable of moving the car into a line of parked vehicles, was presented in 2007.

One-third of respondents in a survey conducted by the New England University Transportation Center admitted problems with parallel parking. Many of them said they found it even more stressful than an appointment at a dentist.

technologies

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How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? Engines of the future: more powerful and more fuelefficient

Two years ago, Audi presented its vision of a system designed not only to park the car automatically but also to take the car to a parking lot without the driver inside. Named Piloted Parking, the system cooperates with a smart phone. The driver gets out of the car and, using a special application, selects the place for automatic parking. The car goes to the selected parking lot, finds an empty space and parks. When the driver wants to leave, he/she uses the smart phone again to „call“ the car.

How does Audi‘s Auto Piloted Parking work? youtu.be/rgN8MOrss40

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Parking has become an independent focus area in developing electronic systems. „Customers‘ requirements have changed a lot over the past decade,“ says Jan Obermann of TML and adds: „ In response to such increased requirements, we have introduced parking systems with front and rear sensors in the Fabia and Rapid, and the Octavia, Yeti and Superb offer a parking assistant designed to park the car semi-automatically to both longitudinal and perpendicular gaps. New cars can even unpark from gaps. The area of parking offers one undisputed advantage: The speed of parking manoeuvres is low, and engineers are therefore not limited by legislation as much as they are with driverless operations at higher speeds. The process of introducing automatic parking systems may involve launches of technologies that, as the next step, can be used in or modified for autonomous driving, e.g. in traffic jams.“

Parking a car using a watch? One of the futuristic visions that will come true one day.

pro du ct product

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Engines of the future more powerful and more fuel-efficient

futuristic lightness Plastics may become a way of reducing engine weight. The Fraunhofer Institute in Germany has presented an engine containing plastic components made of phenolic resins reinforced with glass fibres.

Modern engines are geared to meet customers‘ desire for more powerful cars, but they tend to be more economical, too. So what does the future hold for drivers who want the maximum possible power under the bonnet? At 431.072 km/h, the world‘s fastest car as recognised by the Guinness Book of Records is the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport. Bugatti plays a tug-of-war game with Koenigsegg over the fastest-car primacy, but rather than being a thing drivers really need, the hunt for the highest maximum speed is more a matter of prestige and, primarily, a matter of demonstrating car manufacturers‘ technological expertise.

A good example of where technology is going in this area is the Volkswagen Golf.

The first souped-up Golf hatchback was born 40 years ago. Weighing 810 kg and featuring a 110 HP engine, the Golf GTI

accelerated from 0 to 100 kilometres in nine seconds. The fastest current Golf R is fitted with an engine tuned up to nearly 300 HP, and the brand plans to produce a limited edition, the Golf R 400, whose engine is to offer an extra 100 HP. Another direction the Volkswagen Group intends to take as far as powerful engines are concerned was presented at this year‘s International Vienna Motor Symposium. In addition to its new 6.0 W12 TSI engine that offers 447 kW (608 HP) of power at 6,000 rpm and 900 Nm between 1,500 and 4,500 rpm, the brand also presented a TSI engine whose volume is only 1 litre, but its power is 200 kW (272 HP). Both these units are top-class products in terms of both power and fuel consumption.

With C02 emissions below 250 g/km, the former is the most environmentally friendly 12-cylinder on the market.. 

250 km/h Why is the maximum speed of a vast majority of powerful cars electronically limited to 250 km/h? The reason is a gentleman‘s agreement from the late 1980s reached by car manufacturers in fear that their „chase for speed“ might be stopped by governments or the European Union.

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How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? „Sufficient dynamics are and always will be a property desired in passenger cars,“ says Martin Hrdlička, Head of TP – Chassis and Engine Development. „Generally, the displacements of today‘s engines are lower due to downsizing, but supercharging and other technological innovations have improved the torque curve. Moreover, reducing the overall weight of vehicles has led to engine performance improvements.

Autonomous vehicles are one of the technologies of the future - they are going to change the character of traffic, as well as the maximum-speed legislation. These factors will reduce the overall driving dynamics but will not kill people‘s desire for speed and delight in driving. Yet many drivers are likely to change their behaviour.“

Car occupant and pedestrian safety comes first Car accidents are an unpleasant part of road traffic, and experts believe they will not disappear from roads even with autonomous vehicles in place. In other words, because of its complexity, the automotive transport system simply cannot avoid mistakes.

Yet it should become a standard that when an accident does occur, people walk away by themselves, and the only damage is a pile of twisted metal. Car manufacturers have bold plans.

The cornerstones of passive safety are airbags and deformation zones.

The number of airbags keeps growing, and airbags have become a

eCall activation

standard even in cheaper cars. One of the new trends will be to connect them with safety belts: Rear-seat belts for this type of configuration have already appeared in the market.

The future will see airbags in completely new locations – for example, tests of airbags between rear-seat passengers (designed to prevent mutual injury) are already underway. Airbags will also appear on the outside of cars to protect pedestrians, and on motorcycles, too, and manufacturers are even testing airbags placed under the chassis - their role is to inflate and help brake the car in case of an accident. 

connection to 112 and MSD data transmission

call connected to 112 operator

New materials Audi is considering the use of carbon.

Compared with steel, carbon offers a number of benefits, primarily extreme torsional resistance and a much higher impact-absorption capacity. In a project named Multimaterial Space Frame, Audi is now looking for a suitable combination of all materials. For example, carbon would be used in pillars and door sills, and artificial resin would be used to connect carbon and steel parts.

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14–17 s eCall system From April 2018 onwards, all car manufacturers will be obliged to fit new vehicles with the eCall system, a smart box designed to call 112, Europe‘s universal emergency line, in case of an accident, by using an integrated SIM card. If the emergency line agent fails to connect with the driver, they will send a rescue team to the scene of the accident. The system is designed to identify the coordinates of the location, the direction of movement in the last few seconds, and even the number of car occupants.

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The world to go OLED Lights are without a doubt one of the key safety elements. Audi has already presented its plan to replace LED technology with OLED (organic light emitting diode). The key benefit is that OLED does not need a source of light for backlighting, because organic light emitting diodes shine as far as they are powered, and they look like stickers, except that they are slightly thicker. OLED „stickers“ will cover the whole car in the future, i.e. the light will move from side to side in response to the car‘s tilting movement, the whole side will flicker when the car is switched off, etc.

How do OLED headlamps work? youtu.be/ SVVUm4y8oMw

Intelligent systems Whether we like it or not, situations where it is not possible to avoid a crash will still exist, but it is vital to reduce the consequences of such accidents substantially. Modern intelligent systems, such as Pre Sense, need just tens of milliseconds to set tens of vehicle systems to a mode reducing the risk for the occupants of both cars involved in the coming accident. And they will soon become even smarter. If the car is fitted with adaptive shock absorbers, the system will calculate the optimal shock absorber settings to ensure that the vehicle‘s geometry is well prepared for impact.

Automatic „dodge“ Car manufacturers tend to integrate passive and active safety elements to form a single, integrated system whose primary role is to avoid crashes. Systems to appear in the very near future include, in particular, infra-red cameras for improved night-time vision that are designed to detect human and/or animal warmth and warn the driver in a timely fashion of a pedestrian or an animal on the road. With solutions like adaptive cruise control, multi-collision brake and advance stability systems in place, there is a hope that you would walk away unscathed from your next crash with Mother Nature.

And the next stage is that the car will react for you, i.e. it will either stop or dodge the animal or pedestrian in a manner ensuring that you do not lose control over the car.

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Car interiors will they become sitting rooms on wheels?

Car interiors are changing rapidly as we are leaving the analogue times behind and entering the digital age. Buttons are being replaced with touchscreens, instrument casings are pushed out by multi-purpose displays, and what used to be a group of independent devices is now integrated into a single spot. Yet this process of integrating multiple functions and removing countless buttons from dashboards is just a cosmetic change, and the key task for designers responsible for vehicle ergonomics remains the same: making the driver feel comfortable and able to concentrate fully on driving at the same time. The

key to interior changes is to be found in modern automotive concepts. While in the past such concepts included wildly arranged dashboards and exotically shaped steering wheels resembling handlebars or joysticks from airplanes and spaceships, today‘s designers are inspired by autonomous vehicle trends and are sending a clear message to the potential customers of the 2030 - 2050 period: The steering wheel will no longer be the central point of the interior. It may disappear completely, and cars for city traffic may just be one-seaters, as shown by the Volkswagen 2028 study in the photo below. 

Touch-free control Paradoxically, the transition from analogue buttons to touchscreens requires more attention from the driver (the device cannot be controlled blindly, simply by touch). That is why car manufacturers keep offering various solutions – for example, ŠKODA vehicles come with hand-motion detection functionality: Aware that the driver‘s hand is approaching, the display activates itself. The next stage is touch-free control that would take the form of a combination of gestures and voice commands.

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The seats will be rotary, the interior will change its shape, and the steering wheel will no longer be the alpha and omega of the interior.

Variable interior Last year, the American division of Honda‘s development organisation came up with the Acura HMI, a concept to explore the possibilities of a shape-changing surface that the passengers control with their thoughts. The interior of this type will be able to change its shape, and the vehicle - using biometric data - will learn the preferences of each of its users and then adapt itself for each user to climb into the interior.

The seats will be rotary to enable the driver and the front-seat passenger to turn away from the road and sit facing the second row of seats – within just a few years, the driver‘s compartment may become a social area where instead of the steering wheel our eyes will be turned to ubiquitous screens, just like in today‘s sitting rooms.

The steering wheel will no longer be the alpha and omega of the interior. In some interiors, it will take the form of an emergency pop-out steering device, a kind of rescue ring for cases when the artificial intelligence fails.

„The number of systems and settings controlled by the driver keeps growing, and so are customers‘ connectivity and infotainment requirements,“ says Karel Švábek, Head of TF - Frontloading, who goes on to say: „Whether we take integrated navigation systems or connected smart phones packed with apps, there is always the need to view all the information somewhere and to control the system in one way or another. Touchscreen is the dominant solution and is also used by ŠKODA. As touchscreens are getting larger and their quality is increasing, it is gradually becoming possible to use them to control a growing number of functions and substantially reduce the number of buttons and switches, which, at the end of the day, makes the whole interior simpler and easier to survey.“

How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO?

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drive

sy stems technologie

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Green future without petrol and diesel How does the hydrogen-drive vehicle work? youtu.be/dj0iaoNvuFQ

What will cars run on when we run out of crude oil? There are many plans, but electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles are currently the two main directions. „Considering the current legislation, a massive expansion of electric mobility in the automotive industry is inevitable,“ said ŠKODA AUTO Board Chairman Winfried Vahland at the MMK management meeting in June.

The Volkswagen Group has a number of options compatible with its modern MQB platform (that ŠKODA is starting to use for its vehicles, too): electricity, ethanol, gas, plug-in hybrid, etc. The fuel cell option may be news to many, but the first tests with liquid hydrogen

were already carried out in 2000 and 2001. The Passat HyMotion 4 presented at last year‘s Los Angeles Auto Show was an overture to the currently tested Volkswagen Golf HyMotion in which fuel cells drive an electric motor.

The hydrogen version produces 136 HP of power and 270 Nm of torque, and its performance is comparable to that of conventional mid-end engines.

Recuperation makes it possible to store enough energy in the electric-motor battery for as many as 50 kilometres (the battery can be recharged from an ordinary home socket), and the Golf HyMotion‘s combined range is around 500 kilometres. 

Hydrogen heart

Golf HyMotion built on the MQB platform The DC/DC CONVERTER is responsible for setting the voltage, and thereby for controlling the flow of energy among the battery, the fuel cell and the electric motor.

POWER ELECTRONICS are connected to the electric motor and the battery.

A LITHIUM-ION HIGH-VOLTAGE BATTERY stores energy recovered through recuperation during braking.

The FUEL CELL STACK is the drive’s power plant. It consists of many individual fuel cells that generate electric power for the electric motor through a chemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen.

The RADIATOR releases heat produced by energy conversion into the environment and in doing so cools the fuel cell. The HyMotion features a fully automotive drive with 12,000 revolutions per minute.

SYNCHRONOUS MOTOR taken from the drive of the e-Golf.

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Four FUEL CYLINDERS in the rear of the vehicle.

The Golf HyMotion features SINGLE SPEED TRANSMISSION.

CO2 emissions will decrease substantially

37 %

According to the ACEA (European Association of Car Manufacturers), the number of electric vehicles and hybrids in the EU together grew by 37 % in 2014, and electric vehicles alone by 57 %.

Responsible environmental policies and ever-stricter CO2 emission limits have already triggered changes in the area of reducing fuel consumption.

In 2021, the new EU limit for average carbon dioxide emissions from new vehicles will be 95 g/km (it is 130 g/km at the moment). The nearest future of both passenger and freight transport will no doubt involve combinations of various drive systems. Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular, the growth being fuelled by customers who wish to behave environmentally friendly, as well as through various incentives from countries and cities, including, in particular, benefits such

as favourable purchase and operating costs, special parking spaces, etc.

The increasing number of recharging stations is another positive factor.

Although there are only around 600 electric vehicles in the Czech Republic, and the support from the government is still rather negligible, the number of recharging stations is supposed to double in 2015 to about 100–120.

Key challenges include infrastructural improvements and range extension.

Electric mobility does not solve the problem of overcrowded cities; instead, the focus is on environmental aspects.

It is a vision for the future, and a route that car manufacturers should take. 

CO2020 The Volkswagen Group is the world leader in introducing environmentally friendly vehicles. The Group has undertaken to reduce the average CO2 emissions across its European fleet to less than 95 g/km by 2020 and already has 57 model versions that meet this limit. Moreover, the Group‘s ambition is to reduce the fuel consumption of its new-generation models by 10–15% as compared with their predecessors and to become the electric mobility leader by 2018.

drive systems

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What do you think is the future of conventional combustion engines?

29 %

16 %

55 %

Consumption measurement to become stricter Standardised consumption has been measured under the NEDC methodology (New European Driving Cycle) since 1999. NEDC is a 20-minute test whose key benefit is that it can be performed repeatedly under ideal conditions. The vehicle does about 11 kilometres on rollers during the test. NEDC is divided into two parts: city and out-of-city. This method, however, will soon become stricter, the ambition being to get closer to the methodology used in the US, under which the distance covered by the tested vehicle is more than twice as long, and the test includes a fast „motorway“ ride and a ride with the air conditioning switched on.

Will remain No. 1 at least until 2030; Alternative drive systems (LPG, CNG, Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid, Electric Vehicle) will become dominant by 2030; The combustion-alternative proportion will be about the same; 2,883 respondents took part

The first season of Formula E, the first official FIA series to feature electric Formula vehicles, ended a few weeks ago.

The spectators could hardly enjoy the sound that is typical of other motorsport events, but race tracks built in city centres seem to be an attractive form of compensation.

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How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? „The combustion engine still has a long future, but it will keep developing, and the main portion of investments will be in engine regulation solutions,“ says Head of TP Martin Hrdlička. „Besides vehicles with this conventional type of engine, hybrids and solely electric vehicles have already entered the market, and these types of drive will expand. Once the batteries become able to absorb higher amounts of energy, the range per charge will grow, and these types of drive will start prevailing.“ ŠKODA is gradually implementing a series of modern technologies to reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, including the START/STOP and braking energy recuperation systems, and keeps downsizing its combustion engines, too – the Superb is the first ŠKODA with an engine offering a cylinder deactivation functionality. ŠKODA pursues these technologies hand in hand with the Volkswagen Group, and it will certainly not lag behind in utilising them in the future.

develop ment and

pro duct ion technologie

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The Fourth Industrial revolution has started Industrial revolutions

1779 1st Industrial Revolution Mechanical equipment running on water and steam energy.

1870 2nd Industrial Revolution Mass production based on distribution of work; electricity.

1969 3rd Industrial Revolution Electronics and IT used in further stages of production automation.

The degree of robotisation is growing dynamically across all industries. In Germany, experts call this phenomenon the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industrie 4.0), and the German government intends to set clear rules for this kind of human-machine „teamwork“. Along with technological giants such as Siemens, Bosch, Volkswagen, etc., the German government invests hundreds of millions of euros in production plant digitisation.

Car manufacturers see digitisation and automation as a way of eliminating financial and HR inefficiencies. It is not about making people redundant, though - the primary goal is to make their work simpler and make the operation of companies more efficient. By analysing big data, Volkswagen is already looking to find the best possible approach. There is no doubt that the future will see a shift towards techni-

cal professions. Workers will become machine programmers, hard manual work will be taken over by robots, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution will see highly qualified staff members do most of their work with the help of strong steel arms.

Man-robot cooperation moves the existing boundaries and changes the position of robots in production technologies. It opens up new opportunities of using robots in various areas of industrial production.

These technologies should not be seen as job killers, though; instead, these solutions are meant to make people‘s work simpler and cope with problematic working conditions and ergonomically unsuitable positions.

Moreover, these new technologies make it possible to create barrier-free workplaces and thus save space in shop floor areas. 

Now 4th Industrial Revolution Robotisation of industry, man-robot cooperation.

80 % As many as 80% of German companies are expected to digitise their production processes, at least to some extent, by 2020, and Germany plans to invest several billion euros a year in the Industrie 4.0 over this period.

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How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? ŠKODA AUTO pursues this worldwide trend. It sees great potential for production automation in areas that so far have been very difficult to automate, as well as in areas where the investment in automation has been too high. „We have already identified a number of projects that we plan to launch in the areas of component production, final vehicle assembly, logistics and supplier component quality,“ says Tomáš Posekaný of the Welding Shop Robotisation Planning Department.

Augmented reality will it make us better drivers?

Being aware of the key benefits of virtual planning including time savings, risk prevention and cost savings, ŠKODA AUTO has extensively adopted augmented reality in its operations.

And what is the future of virtual reality in vehicles alone? The first component likely to undergo substantial change is the windscreen. In the automatic driving mode, the whole of its surface along with that of the side windows will be used for displaying information about the surroundings, as well as for entertainment and communication purposes, including inter-vehicle communications. In modes where the

driver is obliged to fully concentrate on driving, augmented reality will only provide the most important inputs, in a format not obstructing the vision and not compromising safety. In addition to much-easier-to-read navigation, the windscreen can provide timely warnings (e.g. cameras identifying an obstacle on the road), highlight road shoulders at night-time and, obviously, provide data that we are used to reading on head-up screens today (speed, traffic signs...). The augmented reality potential will also be utilised in car interiors (e.g. dashboard decor evoking various feelings, etc. 

3D glasses Google Glass is the best-known product to use augmented reality.

How will we view the world one day?

Check out the future of augmented reality: Youtu.be/ rBPmG5mqWfI

How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO „As far as cars are concerned, the near future is likely to see „digital cockpits“, i.e. integrated devices designed to display information on user prompts and in response to the on-road situation,“ says Head of TF Karel Švábek, and goes to say: „Generally, the trend is to display the most important information in the driver‘s direct field of vision, and that is what head-up displays are for.“ Augmented reality is soon to be used by the Logistics Division. „Pick-By-Vision is an innovative logistics solution based on augmented reality displayed in a pair of glasses,“ says David Strnad, Head of VLL, Logistics Planning. „In contrast with standard component picking systems, this solution comes with added value: The system identifies the component picking location, displays the assembly operations to be performed on the component and checks the quality of the component.“

development and production

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3D printer soon in every garage Although 3D printing has been one of the key industrial phenomena over the past few years, the foundations of this technology celebrated 30 years of existence last year. The initial concept was pioneered by Hideo Kodama, and three years later American Chuck Hill finalised that solution, using special software to explain to ultraviolet lasers how to layer polymers. While polymers can be used to print out a nice plastic matchbox car, today‘s big industrial 3D printers can print out a complete car,

in which case we talk about additive manufacturing rather than 3D printing, i.e. a process in which a product is produced by means of the gradual installation of thin layers. Car manufacturers use this method to produce over 100,000 components a year.

How many of them will you find in your car? Zero, as yet, but many of the engine, chassis, exterior and interior components present in your car are based on prototypes initially produced on industrial 3D printers. 

Benefits of 3D printing in automotive development

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The roads to new solutions are full of dead ends, and engineers usually cannot afford using a special shift of staff to produce, while-you-wait, 10 different versions of one component and then test them. 3D printers can print out all 10 products with the required deviations within a few hours. Considering the characteristics of 3D printing, it is no problem to design a component on the other side of the globe and then „e-mail it“ thousands of miles away, to a place where an identical copy is to be printed out.

fascinating things that can be printed out on 3D printers – from a bra to a drone.

Check out what can be done on 3D printers: youtu.be/ 0wWG_3MeyHk

How far are we at ŠKODA AUTO? „3D printing has been known to and used by the Technological Development Division since the beginning of this millennium,“ says Jan Novák, Head of TZV – Prototype Construction. „These days, we can‘t imagine not having this technology in place. Moreover, we plan to build a new competence centre for these technologies in the near future.“

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