00:00The dream of fully autonomous driving has been around a long time,
00:05and in recent years it's come much closer to reality.
00:08Today we look at VW and Moya and their vision of autonomous mobility.
00:15Autonomous driving is getting more and more important,
00:18but there is more to it than you would at first think.
00:20So today we are invited for a ride along with the new VW ID.Bus AD,
00:25which stands for autonomous driving, and what we'll learn today,
00:28we'll find out right now. Welcome to RAF.
00:32Autonomous driving has already made its way into passenger cars to some extent,
00:36but mainly for private mobility.
00:39VW and its subsidiary Moya want to change that.
00:44People of the city, they love ride pooling.
00:47They like sharing their rides with others.
00:51It's still quite efficient, and it reduces the load for the road.
00:56It's a chance for elder people, younger people.
00:59Maybe in the future you won't have a driving license.
01:04You can call the robotaxi, of course, to bring your children to the kindergarten.
01:11I have to say I kind of love that concept.
01:12I like the idea of using autonomous driving to further public transport
01:19and to make it more flexible, especially,
01:22and also ideally to reduce traffic in the city.
01:25Personally, that's, I think, the positive part of the technology,
01:30so that the traffic is more flexible, that it can adapt to the traffic
01:36and adapt to demand, basically.
01:39For the user, the process is quite simple.
01:43Using a smartphone app, you enter your destination.
01:47The system then identifies the nearest pickup point,
01:50usually less than a five-minute walk away,
01:53and assigns a nearby vehicle to your trip.
01:57Standard waiting times are also set at no more than five minutes.
02:02When the car arrives, it displays a code that also appears in your app.
02:07Using near-field communication, or NFC, you unlock the vehicle and step inside.
02:13Cameras and sensors in the cabin make sure all passengers are ready to go,
02:18including having their seatbelts fastened.
02:21Then the journey begins, and the car takes care of the rest.
02:26The AV is also putting the indicators by itself,
02:33and, yeah, is generally able to handle all situations.
02:37Our test specialist here is, however, in the vehicle to ensure safety at all times.
02:45Most of the time, the specialist doesn't touch the steering wheel, accelerator, or brakes.
02:50If intervention is needed, he rates the severity of the event
02:53and records a voice message describing what happened.
02:56The data is then used by developers to improve the vehicle's behavior.
03:00This is only for the testing phase.
03:03Once the systems are finalized, the car will no longer need this kind of watchdog.
03:08Even so, many people still have concerns.
03:12Personally, I think it's very interesting, but also very frightening technology.
03:18And I'm not 100% sure about the benefits, to be honest.
03:22I can see improvement for public transport, etc.
03:26But I fear it's going to be that, at some stage, big corporates are going to take over,
03:31make it into a subscription service, make premium subscription,
03:35and then, yeah, the ordinary people are basically stuck in traffic again,
03:41while their premium subscription is driving on the fast lane.
03:45It's a great option, but I don't think it will be replacing everything.
03:52You know, I think the traffic that we know, the mobility that we know,
03:55will also rely on human beings still driving.
03:58In the long run, Moya will not operate this type of service itself.
04:02Instead, the Volkswagen Group technology company plans to sell a complete package,
04:07ranging from autonomous vehicles and the mobility as a service platform,
04:11to operator enablement.
04:19Our approach is to, at all times, be able to observe 360 degrees around the vehicle.
04:29To make that possible, the car needs a lot of technology.
04:36Autonomous driving requires quite a lot of sensors at the car,
04:3927 in total for the ID.Bus AD.
04:42There are a lot of cameras, radar sensors, but also lighter sensors,
04:47and the car can see up to 300 meters in distance.
04:52I think it's an interesting concept, especially as someone who doesn't drive a car herself.
04:58But I question the ethics about it, who's liable in the end.
05:02For example, if there's a child running into the street and it comes to an accident,
05:07is the car going to serve to protect me as the driver or the passenger in the car,
05:12or always the child?
05:13What happens if there are three children in the back of the car?
05:16Who's going to have the moral high ground in the end to make these kind of decisions?
05:20We need to understand the highest complexities of the city.
05:26Instant reaction, understanding even the failures of others,
05:31behaving like a human, like you would expect a human would behave,
05:36even knowing to handle even very difficult situations, accidents,
05:41whatever what is normal in cities.
05:46This is actually a situation we have to react to.
05:50The AV does it perfectly, as you could see.
05:55The vehicle itself isn't the only thing that needs to be smart and aware.
05:59Behind it all is a digital cloud system that allocates and monitors the cars.
06:08Intelligence in the cloud should prepare which roads are good for the autonomous driving,
06:16which are not as good.
06:18What is the appropriate speed to choose?
06:20Is there a social event which road you should avoid?
06:27How are the people behaving in the vehicles?
06:30Is this according to the standards?
06:32When people share a ride, are they behaving in a manner that everybody is respecting each other?
06:38Have they lost anything in the vehicle, a wallet for example?
06:41The cloud knows everything.
06:49I would miss the personal contact with the drivers, because coming to a foreign city,
06:54taxis are a great part of culture and also a great part of experiencing a city as a tourist or
07:01a visitor.
07:01So I would not want to miss human drivers completely with the taxi.
07:06Hamburg is the first German city to get this fully electric on-demand mobility network,
07:12while cities like Beijing, San Francisco and Phoenix already have similar systems.
07:16One reason for the delay in Europe is stricter regulation, especially in Germany.
07:21The ride-along is over and it was quite impressive to see how well the car handles in city traffic.
07:26There were quite some interesting situations and the car reacts so fast, no human could ever do that.
07:33And that's why I think this technology will very soon become a common look,
07:37not only in Germany but all across Europe.
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