Survey on the Future of Mobility: Germans Believe in Autonomous Driving
Faster subway schedules, optimized traffic flow on roads and fewer disruptions due to strikes: 57% of Germans are convinced that means of transport such as trains, buses or cars will be predominantly autonomous in 20 years. This opinion is prevalent across all age groups. Among those aged 16 to 29, 63% expect predominantly autonomous vehicles in 20 years, while among those aged 30 to 49, it is 61%. In the 50 to 64 age group, it is 51% and in the age group 65 and above, it is 55%. These are results of a representative survey commissioned by the digital association Bitkom among 1003 people in Germany aged 16 and above.
"Despite all technical challenges: Autonomous driving is the future. Autonomous vehicles not only have high reliability, they also relieve the environment, provide more driving comfort and enhance safety for passengers"
says Dr. Bernhard Rohleder, CEO of Bitkom.
"As a future part of local and long-distance transport, autonomous means of transport can also mitigate the increasing shortage of drivers and improve mobility services, especially in rural areas." Whether autonomous or not, on-demand or scheduled service, sharing or private ownership – new mobility options such as sharing bikes, on-demand taxis or autonomous shuttle buses are already changing mobility behaviour.
A large portion of Germans (84%) is convinced that by using these options, they are contributing to climate protection. 83% believe that new mobility options can increase quality of life, especially in rural areas. 74% expect to save money by using new means of transport. Similarly, 74% say that these options increase attractiveness of public transport, because the journey to stations can be more flexibly managed. And 68% of Germans believe that new mobility options can reduce urban traffic.
Most Germans have a positive attitude towards new means of transport. New options are already changing mobility behaviour.
Picture: BMW
Fraunhofer FEP: New High-Speed Light Modulation for OLED, Micro-LED, LCOS
High-resolution light modulators play a crucial role in shaping the graphical experience in virtual reality (VR) glasses or the performance in optical communication. Fraunhofer FEP, located in Dresden (Germany), has developed a new backplane architecture for light modulation, enabling extremely high refresh rates that lead to improved image quality and optical modulation. In applications such as optical imaging or laser control and communication, light modulators are used to control and manipulate the intensity, phase or polarization of light. High-speed light modulation is also used in applications such as high-resolution displays, augmented reality (AR) and VR glasses. This allows for clear images with minimal motion blur and a high refresh rate, resulting in an enhanced visual experience.
Fraunhofer FEP has been developing microdisplays based on OLEDon- silicon technology for many years, tailored to specific applications. For AR and VR applications with high refresh rates, the institute has already realized various displays with a sophisticated combination of power-efficient backplane and optimized pixel densities in recent years.
Philipp Wartenberg, Head of IC and System Design at Fraunhofer FEP, explains the latest developments: "Our newly developed backplane architecture significantly expands the possibilities for light modulation and exceeds previous refresh rates by multiple times. This is made possible by integrating a complete frame buffer and a highspeed interface to the pixel matrix. With this architecture, a data transfer rate of up to 576 Gbit/s can be achieved for a pixel array with a resolution of 1440 × 1080 pixels and a pixel size of 2.5 μm for LCOS, OLED and Micro-LED front planes." BM
Small but powerful: The new backplane developed by Fraunhofer FEP in comparison with a coffee bean.
Picture: Fraunhofer FEP