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Audi

Communications

Rupert Stadler

Speech

Falling Walls Conference


Rede

November 9, 2014 | AUDI AG, Berlin

Audi
Communications

Speech at the
Falling Walls Conference
Rupert Stadler
Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG
Berlin, November 9, 2014
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Thank you Dr. Wnning Tschol, and many thanks to the Falling Walls Foundation for inviting me to speak
about a multidisciplinary, scientific approach to urban mobility.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
25 years after the famous Fall of the Berlin Wall, it is an honor for me to speak to you here in this city. In a
city where one of the greatest breakthroughs in history happened. I remember that day very well because it
made one thing very clear to me: When is it worth tearing down a wall? If what we expect to find behind
this wall promises more freedom and more opportunities than what we have at present. Then nobody will
stop people from tearing down walls.
Looking back: November 9 not only marked an opening of physical borders, but it gave way to the new era,
the era of globalization. We as a German car manufacturer couldnt have grown that much
without this opening of mindsets in politics, society and economy. Take a look at Audi in the mid-nineties:
Back then, we sold 360.000 cars worldwide half of them in Germany. This year, we will sell around 1.7
million cars more than 85 percent in our global markets. However, there still remain walls to be torn
down as will be the mission of the TTIP agreement between the EU and the US, for example. This is not just
a matter of import duties. What is even more important to us: Tearing down walls also means eliminating
other trade barriers such as missing or differing standards.
Just think of turn indicators unbelievable but true: They are required to have a different color here than in
the US. Missing standards make the transatlantic car trade unnecessarily complicated and expensive! And
while on the one hand we are tearing down walls, on the other we see new and even greater barriers come
into existence especially in cities.
In the past 25 years we were dealing with globalization. For the next 25 years we need to add the challenge
of urbanization. Already today, cities count for more than 50 percent of the worlds population. The
challenge which is arising from this fact and that inspires me is easy to demonstrate: I imagine that about
90 percent of the people in this room live in a city. Most of you will probably have a car and all of you are
probably really annoyed with driving in his or her city.
What you see from this example: The promise of freedom through mobility is very limited in cities. Lets
look at some facts: Car drivers in Los Angeles or here in Berlin on average lose one week per year stuck in
traffic jams. For citizens of Sao Paulo, Mexico City or Beijing its even four times as much: They spend a
whole month per year in traffic. At todays conference you heard from a true expert, Nate Lewis how

Falling Walls Conference | November 9, 2014 | AUDI AG, Berlin


* The collective fuel consumption of all models named above and available on the German
market can be found in the list provided at the end of this speech.

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Communications

crucial it will be to cut down on CO2 emissions on a global scale. At the moment, mobility in cities
does not only mean that we lose a lot of time but we do also waste huge amounts offuel, money and
carbon-dioxide.
So the wall for us to tear down is one between mobility and the city. This is why, in 2010, we started
working with the megacities of the world in the Audi Urban Future Initiative. This is an open and
multidisciplinary discourse among scientists, urban planners, architects, and mobility experts. Our mission:
to decode the DNA of urban mobility. Or in the words of one of the most prominent urban sociologists,
Saskia Sassen: to urbanize mobility. By the way, Saskia is one of the scientific experts who have worked
with us in the Audi Urban Future Initiative from the very beginning. Weve learned a lot from our work with
various specialists and researchers across the globe. I want to share with you some of the insights from our
exchange with cities. Mobility and cities are of the same nature. They are constantly changing shape and
dynamics. And even if no two cities are alike, there are certain common patterns. We just have to analyze
and understand these patterns. Because this will allow us to make predictions and find solutions on how to
create cities that are more mobile, livable and sustainable.
Most importantly, we have already identified three fundamental breakthroughs. The three of them will
guide us at Audi to the future of urban mobility. Here are our hypotheses: First of all, mobility transforms
immobility. Innovation and new technologies in mobility, brings benefits not only for car drivers but also
for urban development. Just think of the strong trend towards smart cities. With this knowledge, the task
from now on will be to plan mobility innovations and city infrastructure together.
Secondly: In the future of urban space, reality and virtuality melt together. The cities of tomorrow will have
to create interfaces to the virtual space. For us as at Audi that means: In a world driven by the Internet of
Everything, the car will transform into a completely new multi-device. This device then combines mobility,
access to information and social life.
Thirdly: Individuality and collectivity no longer contradict each other. The car is the foremost means of
individual transport. It will continue closing gaps in the urban mobility system. Individual preferences can
actually inform and improve collective systems. They can make individual urban traffic and public
transportation more complementary in the end.
In this years Audi Urban Future Award multidisciplinary research teams have been testing these
breakthroughs. They did so under the theme Next Leap in Mobility. The teams worked in four cities:
Berlin, Boston-Somerville, Mexico City and Seoul. Tomorrow we will announce the winner here in Berlin.
The results are very promising but for details lets wait until tomorrow.
Lets get back to the beginning. Tearing down the wall between mobility and the city. Lets define: What is
our role? What are our tools? Why is what we anticipate behind the wall better than what we have today?
Our nature is innovation. And thus Vorsprung in the city is defining our role and our ambition: to ensure
freedom in individual mobility. We achieve this, on the one hand, of course, through our tools of new
technologies. This is why we are investing in fundamental research more than ever. Especially in research
for new drivetrain technologies to reduce CO2 emissions and in research for new software and IT to make
cars more intelligent and networked. We are part of the Volkswagen Group with the worlds largest
investment in R&D. As such I would truly like to thank all scientists and foundations like the Falling Walls
for their constant strive for progress in these fields of research. New technologies will help to optimize
the most important resources of cities, like clean air and free space. So: we have the drive, we have the
tools and we have the entrepreneurial spirit to look behind the wall.

Falling Walls Conference | November 9, 2014 | AUDI AG, Berlin


* The collective fuel consumption of all models named above and available on the German
market can be found in the list provided at the end of this speech.

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Because what we see behind it is a unique opportunity. An opportunity to create solutions for a sustainable
urban development and freedom for our customers. Cars and cities together form new alliances. The most
important prerequisite in this constellation is that cities begin to rethink their attitude towards efficient
mobility. Its not simply about strict regulations and restrictions. Its about smart and flexible ways to
improve mobility and quality of life for citizens holistically.
I am convinced: Intelligent car technologies will find their way into cities if city planners and investors
understand the potential of intelligent mobility. And if they can in fact assess the dramatic benefits these
technologies could provide. The future car will keep its natural place in the urban environment, if we can
develop it to perfectly connect with the city.
Let me give you just a few striking examples: Take parking, for instance. I dont have to tell you that space
is a very scarce resource in cities. You wont believe how much smaller parking garages can be, if we make
use of piloted parking technology. Or think of infrastructure that connects with cars traffic lights for
example. This technology will allow for driving a true green wave causing less traffic jams and resulting
in less emissions. Just imagine: In the future, an intelligent mobility algorithm will organize the entire
traffic of a city based on origin-destination-data. Predictive systems like this will make all the difference.
And finally, the new technology of piloted driving. It will change our lives, dramatically improving safety
and allowing for a completely new user experience
Today, we are not too far away from that future: In a world premiere three weeks ago, we arranged for an
Audi RS 7* to drive without a driver, without anyone in the car! On the Hockenheim racetrack, at more than
230 kilometers or 140 miles per hour. In this case engineering students from Stanford University worked
together with our Electronics Research Lab in California. One of more than 30 examples for how we
cooperate with the finest universities around the world for constantly being on top of cutting edge
research.
But let me come back to my initial learning from 1989: In order to overcome a wall you have to really
desire what is behind it. There are a few things that still prevent city administrations from making a real
change in urban mobility: Often, it is lack of information, tools and knowledge, for example missing links
between technological and spacial parameters that finally create currencies for informed investment
decisions. For Audi, this is an issue we will address through a game-changing dialogue with cities
worldwide. While others work in cities, we are working with the cities. Creating systems which have a real
positive impact on urban populations is a task impossible to be done by one party only. The goal is to
synchronize innovation cycles: While we develop cars for 2020, city planners shape urban life for 2030
today. Therefore we will initiate urban future partnerships in 2015. What we will bring to the table is:
Smart technologies that will be our currency we are convinced they can be of huge benefit.
What we expect from cities is: Smart partners in smart cities. We need cities that are curious about looking
behind the wall together with us. Because we all are trying to strive for what ultimately counts: efficient
mobility, sustainability and quality of life. We will need hybrid and multidisciplinary platforms for
exchange between megacities, academia, and companies around the globe. With experts from both the
private and public sector and from all scientific fields.
Lets think out of the box and overcome system barriers. To tear down the wall that still separates us
from a new type of urban and people oriented mobility. Lets accept that future cities will combine both

Falling Walls Conference | November 9, 2014 | AUDI AG, Berlin


* The collective fuel consumption of all models named above and available on the German
market can be found in the list provided at the end of this speech.

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Audi
Communications

real and virtual environments simultaneously. Lets look at individualism and collectivity as
interconnected in the urban space of the near future. Lets look behind the wall together and carry our
ideas into the world. At the end of the day, it is the desire of the people for change
that propels us forward.
Thank you.
End

Contact
Jutta Carina Frisch
Communications Culture & Trends
Phone: +49 841 89-36066
mailto:jutta.frisch@audi.de

Fuel consumption figures of the models named above


Audi RS 7 Sportback:
Combined fuel consumption in l/100 km: 9.5
Combined CO2 emissions in g/km: 221

Falling Walls Conference | November 9, 2014 | AUDI AG, Berlin


* The collective fuel consumption of all models named above and available on the German
market can be found in the list provided at the end of this speech.

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