Stuttgart sees first urban flight of Volocopter in Europe
Volocopter has demonstrated an unmanned flight over Stuttgart, Germany on September 14, part of a two-day event titled, “Vision Smart City – Experience future mobility today.” A major promotion of Mercedes-Benz’s history, products, and plans for future mobility, Partner Volocopter highlighted the drive toward “climate neutral mobility” by the auto maker.
Past, present and near-term future in one – Mercedes-Benz museum and Volcopter
Smart City networks will rely on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Adaptive Networks according to Ciena, a provider of networking, programming and systems for ever-increasing demands by industry and municipalities. Control of traffic that will increasingly include Urban Aerial Mobility will take intense amounts of data – up to 24 billion Internet Provider (IP) devices on earth (three for every person) and Internet of Things (IoT) gizmos flowing up to 500 zetabytes (500 followed by 21 zeros) per year.
The Mercedes-Benz Museum featured presentations, “Of technical innovations and sustainable transport concepts for future mobility at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart.” Surely, as fascinating as these papers were, there might have been an exodus to the great outdoors when Volocopter’s 18-rotor marvel passed quietly overhead.
The Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Winfried Kretschmann, and the Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG, Ola Källenius, the CEO of Volocopter GmbH, Florian Reuter, and Thomas Strobl, Minister of the Interior, Digitalisation and Migration for Baden-Württemberg, were on hand to witness this historic event.
Flying over the Mercedes-Benz Museum, the Volocopter looked down on a repository of automotive history and presented a vision of the future. It struck a proper note as part of a research project by the Technical University of Stuttgart to examine the social acceptance of air taxis. It surely added a realistic note to papers, exhibits and booths sharing the theme of the, “Strategic Dialogue for the Automotive Sector in Baden-Württemberg.”
Volocopter’s place on Mercedes-Benz campus shows its importance in this gathering
Ola Källenius, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG and Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars shared a surprising near-term ideal for Mercedes. “Our partner Volocopter shows how an air taxi is turning the dream of driving into the dream of flying. At Daimler we work on the mobility of the future too. By 2022 we will have electrified the entire Mercedes-Benz portfolio. Our goal is that electrically powered cars will account for more than half of our sales by 2030. The road to climate-neutral mobility is a joint effort of companies and politics. We at Daimler a willing and ready to make our contribution.”
Winfried Kretschmann, Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg. Added and element of civic pride. “I am very pleased that “Vision Smart City” shows us future mobility ideas that are already being developed in Baden-Württemberg – concepts for sustainable cities of the future, for autonomous driving and the intelligent interaction between different mobility concepts. I am particularly proud that the “Strategic Dialogue for the Automotive Sector in Baden-Württemberg” is present at the event. This dialogue between industry, science, trade unions and politics shows, that climate protection and sustainable employment is possible at the same time.”
Florian Reuter, CEO of Volocopter GmbH explained Volocopter’s role in future urban mobility. “Our Volocopter air taxis open up a completely new dimension in urban mobility. As Stuttgart has seen today, they fly safely, quietly and are fast approching the implementation stage. Volocopter air taxis are able to ease traffic congestion in major cities around the world, also here in Germany.”
Thomas Strobl, Deputy Minister President and Minister of the Interior, Digitalisation and Migration for Baden-Württemberg concluded, “The mobility of the future must be intelligent, digital and clean, while remaining affordable. The transport concepts of major cities, medium-size towns and rural areas will certainly take different forms. There will be no universal blueprint. But we are already actively, innovatively and creatively working on mobility concepts for the future. We are the innovation region No. 1 in Europe – as demonstrated by the flight of the Volocopter and other projects presented at the event. The aim is to roll these out, and also to use the innovative strength of the municipalities.”
You can find further on the Smart City concept here.