The Audi Magazine Fall/Winter 2018

The Audi Magazine

Electrifying Future

Electrifying Future

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Fall/ Winter 2018

Fall / Winter 2018

The Audi Magazine

new kind of mobility.

An electric future that electrifies entire societies and calls for mobility pioneers.

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A future that is intelligent, connected, effortless and exciting. Because we find cities with the world’s fastest Internet impressive.

Corporate leaders think of changes that used to seem unthinkable. Buildings are so much more than living space because they generate power for electric mobility.

All this becomes possible when new perspectives gain ground. When people follow inspirations that may have been sparked by robots. When digitalization catapults societies into the modern age as a matter of course, letting them leapfrog decades of development in the blink of an eye.

The future is electric. It’s a new day dawning with thrilling dynamism. So get electrified—by Audi.

From A TO Laurence Kemball-Cook 106

TO Amsterdam 34 TO Franz Hofmann 100

TO the new beat 114

TO Linz 68 TO an energy surplus 54

TO Seoul 10 TO Izumi Miyazaki 92

TO Nairobi 136

Spring/Summer 2018 Fall / Winter 2018

TO the next level of electrifying driving 154

Correspondent Fabian Kretschmer definitely enjoys having the world’s fastest Internet in South Korea, where he lives. The only negative side effect: “Smombies” are everywhere. The creative studio Sucuk und Bratwurst interprets its conceptions of tomorrow’s robots in its own unique way. Author Anja Bengelstorff reports from Kenya on the cellphone-based digital payment system that is as popular and common there as bicycles in the Netherlands. And photographer David Fischer knew he would need one special item of equipment on location in Detroit, the birthplace of techno: a set of good earplugs.

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PHOTOS: JULIAN BAUMANN, HENDRIK SCHNEIDER, MATTHIAS ZIEGLER, SIMON ROLOFF

CONTRIBUTORS

WHY DO ES AUDI BELIEVE IN AN ELECTRI FYING FUTURE ?

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SEOUL COPY: Fabian Kretschmer, PHOTO: Julian Baumann, ILLUSTRATION: Raymond Biesinger

Always a bit more advanced: No other city in the world has faster Internet or is as connected as South Korea’s capital.

If you want to understand the Han River miracle, go to Gangnam—the upscale business district in Seoul that skyrocketed to worldwide fame through the YouTube hit “Gangnam Style” by K-pop singer Psy. Here, where rice fields, oxcarts and farmers’ shacks dominated the landscape as recently as the 1970s, 14-lane highways are now flanked by neon-lit office towers. The majority of Korean corporations have settled in Gangnam, along Just five months with ultra-elite high schools, the ritziest after its release night clubs and the in July 2012, the most exclusive deK-pop song signer boutiques.

“Gangnam Style” Nowhere is the Koreached one reans’ uncomprobillion views. It mising will to get remained the ahead more visible most viewed video than in these nearly in YouTube’s 40 square kilomehistory until the ters of cement and middle of 2017. glass facades. So it was no accident that the Internet giant Google also chose this spot for its first campus in all of Asia three years ago.

Michael Kim, at 34 already a tech veteran with a decade in Silicon Valley under his belt, receives us in his sunlightsuffused offices that boast all the classic insignia of a California startup: an industrial-garage look with an open floor plan, the compulsory foosball tables, an integrated café. Twenty-somethings with open laptops nurse lattes at wooden tables; their T-shirts, jeans and sneakers are a stark contrast to Korean companies’ conservative dress code. The country’s cleverest young entrepreneurs are busy working on apps and startups here.

To hear Kim tell it, Google’s decision to set up shop in Seoul sounds like the only logical course of action: “When you look at what makes startups successful around the world, you need three things: talent, infrastructure and a certain company

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culture. We have all those things here in spades.” A glance at the statistics shows that the Google manager is right: At just under 70 percent, South Korea has the highest rate of university graduates of all OECD countries, and the most common studies consistently give its education system top marks internationally. “Innovative thinking is deeply rooted in this people’s culture,” Kim says. “Many of the most brilliant ideas originated in Seoul, not Silicon Valley.” In 1999, five years before Facebook was founded, Korean engineers launched Cyworld, the planet’s first social network. And before YouTube revolutionized our movieconsumption behavior, Koreans could already stream videos on Pandora TV. “Korea is always a step ahead of the zeitgeist. People think about the future constantly,” the Google manager says.

“Everything has to move fast here: If you want to establish a new startup hub “INNO in Seoul—including a subway line to the VATIVE center of the city—it THINKING will spring up in four months.”

IS DEEPLY Undoubtedly, South ROOTED Korea has undergone IN THE a more profound transformation with- CULTURE.” in the space of one generation than has been achieved in any other country; as recently as the 1960s, the bitterly poor agricultural state lay in ruins, its GDP on a par with that of Ghana or Afghanistan. Since then, the Asian nation has ballooned into the eleventh largest economy on the planet.

South Korea has also long been a trendsetter for East Asia and beyond: K-pop bands sell out stadiums from Beijing to Manila, Korean TV series are featured on prime time TV in Iran, and Berlin hipsters pickle their own homemade kimchi. The backbone of South Korea’s

PHOTO: SCHOOLBOY / UNIVERSAL REPUBLIC RECORDS

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For Michael Kim, APAC partnerships manager at Google for Entrepreneurs, Seoul is more than just a stop on his career trajectory. A native of the U.S., he wants to spend the rest of his life in the South Korean capital. This choice is also a journey to the cultural roots of his parents, who emigrated from Seoul to San Francisco long ago.

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Seoul’s subway system is buried deep underground; many of its tunnels could be used as fallout shelters in the event of a nuclear incident with North Korea. Internet service is nonetheless always available. Most commuters spend their trip to the oďŹƒce online.

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economy is certainly its digital supremacy. This was built on massive government investments. All the way back in 1995, South Korea’s government created a ten-year plan to expand broadband Internet, used publicity campaigns to generate acceptance for it and eased restrictions on the market for Internet providers. This strategic investment soon paid off: South Korea now boasts the world’s fastest Internet by far, which, with an average of 28.6 megabits per second, is twice as fast as Germany’s.

The next milestone came in 2015, when the Ministry of Science announced a 1.5 billion euro investment package designed to expand the country’s mobile infrastructure by 2020. Wi-Fi has long been available in 95 percent of the country.

Pangyo Techno Valley is located around 20 kilometers south of Seoul. Its glass buildings arranged in a chessboard pattern, interspersed with landscaped green spaces and brooks along with pristine sidewalks and barely used streets, lend the complex a utopian feel. Eight years ago, Seoul’s government started luring young tech companies to the outskirts of the city with tax breaks. Since then, the local version of Silicon Valley has emerged on 661,000 square meters of real estate in Pangyo. Tim Spaninks, a Dutchman with THE a navy polo shirt, designer jeans and WORLD’S aviator sunglasses, has called Pangyo FASTEST Techno Valley home INTERNET. for over a year. A tech wunderkind, he started building his own levels for computer games while he was still in elementary school. When he finished university in Finland, the game designer joined with some friends to set up their own company: eight people with 200,000 euros in seed money, financed through loans from relatives. Critical Force was the

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name the developers chose for their venture. Their signature creation is a firstperson shooter game for mobile devices that has now been downloaded over 40 million times. “But it was obvious to us that we had to put a Korean version on the market—and to do that, we needed a branch in Seoul. If our game works in Korea, it can be a hit all over the world,” Spaninks says. With 25 million people A glass fiber is in its metropolitan just barely thicker area, Seoul is con- than a human sidered a test lab hair but it offers for game developers: incredible per“Seoul is the key formance. Glass to the Asian mar- fibers conduct ket. In China and data via light waves. especially Southeast They can carry Asia, the scene looks more data per unit to South Korea of time than first.” Critical Force electricity is able to. targets the eSports market, i.e. online gaming as a competitive high-performance sport. Seoul is indisputably the world’s top eSports mecca. An industry worth millions has evolved here over the course of more than a decade—with pro gamers who train seven days a week in team camps, purpose-built eSports stadiums that draw thousands of fans cheering for their heroes on weekends, and sponsors that put up six-figure prizes. “South Korea’s eSports dominance hinges on Internet speed. After all, the difference between victory and defeat is often mere milliseconds,” 26-year-old Spaninks says.

Whether they’re in the subway tunnels deep underground or on the peak of 1,950-meter Mount Hallasan, South Korean gamers always have the fastest Internet connections.

We take the subway back to the center of town, gain access to the platform with a smart card and, for the first time, witness the digital side effects of the country’s high-tech society: Weary commuters

PHOTO: NOISED / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

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Angie Cho, head of an online marketing agency and tech columnist, has long embraced fancy digital gadgetry as part of her everyday life. Whenever she goes abroad, she feels as if she has traveled back in time to the analog past: slow Internet, scarce Wi-Fi hotspots.

Tim Spaninks

“SOUTH KOREA’S ESPORTS DOMINANCE HINGES ON INTERNET SPEED. AFTER ALL, THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VICTORY AND DEFEAT IS OFTEN MERE MILLISECONDS.”

But don’t let looks deceive you: South Korea boasts the world’s fastest Internet, averaging 28.6 megabits per second.

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FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

In even the most modern of Seoul’s neighborhoods, free-hanging fiber-optic cables bring the Internet into people’s homes.

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Time Slice: With ski jumping, KT installed a total of 100 cameras whose image data melded into a revolutionary TV experience. When the jumper lifts off, the user can not only change the image detail on the touch screen but also rotate the angle 360 degrees—in real time, with no delay.

“5G is 20 times faster than the current LTE technology,” Hyung-joon Kim says.

“In the future, you’ll be able to load 20-gigabyte video files in one second.

And the lag time is less than one millisecond. So data can be sent and received from various locations with virtually no delay.” That would enable autonomous vehicles to be commercialized on a massive scale. And drone technology to be used better: In the future, if a fire starts— at least this is the idea—a fire truck would soon no longer have to muscle its way through the rush-hour traffic.

Drones would be dispatched to the scene of the accident automatically to put the fire out. “5G will be the backbone of the fourth industrial revolution—and will play a similarly pivotal role to that of steam engines or electricity back in the day,” Kim says with conviction. In the first quarter of 2019, KT aims to launch the 5G network nationwide—and be the world’s first telecommunications provider to do so. Before taking leave, we ask why Kim thinks his countrymen and women embrace technology so eagerly.

“We have to rely on our human resources; after all, we don’t have any natural resources. That also means that we have to adapt constantly—even just to keep up with the world’s top economies.”

This adaptability is also reflected in the architecture of Seoul City Hall, a futuristically curving glass structure in the shape of a gigantic wave. After signing a confidentiality agreement, we head down to the third floor below ground—and land promptly in a nuclear fallout shelter.

PHOTO: CHRISTOPH SCHMIDT / DPA / PICTURE ALLIANCE

fix their rapt gazes on oversized smartphone screens; every single passenger is online. The smombies keep at it even while switching trains. Feet dragging, faces glued to their phones, the passengers shuffle along from A to B. When we get off at the centrally-located Gwanghwamun Square, analog life has caught up with us: Union leaders with red headbands demonstrate loudly against announced layoffs, a self-anointed messiah with a red wooden cross on his shoulders warns of the imminent apocalypse, while old women in outsized visors insistently distribute flyers for neighborhood restaurants. Scooter messengers bearing meal boxes race through the side streets to the nearby offices—in Seoul, even lunch is managed with an app. The headquarters of KT, South Korea’s leading telecommunications provider, looks from the outside like a stark functional structure in faded ocher.

Inside, however, it In Reutlingen, opens a window on the future. HyungGermany, a sign joon Kim welcomes warns of “smombies” us for our interview (smartphone in an oval showzombies). But this room which, with is not an its LED floor, could official traffic sign. double as a sci-fi No one knows movie set. Virtual who designed and reality headsets hang installed it. on the walls, and downtown Seoul, in mini-hologram form, sprouts from a console in the middle of the room. Hyung-joon Kim is KT’s vice president in charge of global operations.

Kim, whose background is in banking, wants to give us an idea of the next generation of mobile networks: 5G is the magic word, and he says it will revolutionize our everyday lives. “We tried out the first 5G test network during the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang in February. Based on that, we introduced completely new kinds of services for the audiences,” Kim says. Such as Interactive

Seoul has long since evolved into an international startup hub. The young team at Rocky Robots is working on a model designed to use artificial intelligence to act as a personal trainer. East Asians accept new technologies far more readily than Europeans do.

seven million passengers every day. The fare costs the equivalent of just one euro, and is paid electronically with a smart card.

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FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

Seoul’s subway network is considered one of the most efficient public transportation systems on the planet. It moves over

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Youn-gye Yang heads the Seoul city government’s Transportation Information Center. In his control room, he uses big data to manage all the traďŹƒc and transportation in the entire city. The metropolis of ten million has 813 closed-circuit cameras watching over it. Most of the data they provide is available to the public free of charge.

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“When I was growing up, Seoul’s streets were so congested that a drive through town often turned into a day-long excursion,” the city employee says. Seoul didn’t build its first train station until 1971; today, the city’s metropolitan railway system, with 23 commuter lines and over seven million passengers a day, ranks among the most effective on the planet. It is the beating heart of the South Korean capital’s transportation system.

Youn-gye Yang pulls out his tablet again and projects a grid of the city onto the giant screen. “Depending on the average traffic speeds, the color changes. I can see within one kilometer per hour how fast things are moving.” With the euphoria of a teenager who has just discovered the

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computer game Sim City, he demonstrates with a few keystrokes all the gimmicks his console offers: how many taxis are currently driving passengers (23,566), the number of buses that are speeding (92) or whether he forgot to close his living room window (no); 813 closed-circuit cameras with integrated super zoom features let Yang peek into virtually any nook or cranny in the entire metropolitan region.

88 thousand dollars is the average professional

eGamer’s annual income here, according to a recent e-sports.or.kr

study by the Seoul Ministry of Culture. In fact, the birth of eSports in South Korea can be traced back to a tragic story: During the Asian crisis of 1997, the financial markets collapsed and nationwide

Our final evening of research is spent with Angie Cho. At a coffee house, over espresso and cookies, she recounts her career as one of the first women early adopters in the male-dominated tech industry. Her main job is running Glass fiber has long an online market- been used to create ing agency, but she art as well. Eva Hesse also moonlights as experimented with a columnist writ- fiberglass as ing about the lat- a new material way est digital gadgets. back in the 1960s.

“People in Seoul Her works are spend more time at shown at the MoMA the office than virtu- in New York, ally anyone else in among other venues. the world. Free time is scarce. Digital technology helps them make their lives healthier, easier and more efficient,” Cho says. During our interview, she wears a baseball cap that features integrated, invisible Bluetooth earphones. On the table lies an ordinarylooking notebook with a pen. But the pen is equipped with a camera that transposes handwriting straight into her tablet’s e-mail program. The best Internet products, in Angie Cho’s opinion, couple digital convenience with the feel of the analog world: “Whenever I’m in Europe on vacation, I am fascinated to see that people integrate very little technology into their everyday lives. But after the first day, I miss the speed and tech convenience of Seoul again.” 

unemployment tripled. The government went in search of ways to jump-start the economy—and invested heavily in tech infrastructure. Subsidies bolstered the market and personal-computer prices dropped. Many job seekers who were killing time in the South Korean capital’s Internet cafés started playing competitively—and ultimately became the original eSports generation. The gamers soon received the government’s seal of approval when the Ministry of Culture established the Korean

ART MILE Internationally acclaimed artists fly to Seoul for new shows practically every week. But local artists are also celebrated, their works leaning increasingly toward multimedia. In Cheongdam-dong, a ward of Gangnam District, the Nature Poem building—a work of art in its own right— alone houses 18 galleries.

e-Sports Association in 2000. The organization is now a member of the National Olympic Committee.

Recycling 2.0 The island of Nanjido in the Han River served as a colossal garbage dump for Seoul’s refuse through the 1980s. Today it is the site of Digital Media City, a connected, 570,000-square-meter high-tech complex where digital companies, TV stations, gaming companies, radio stations and the music industry have congregated.

seouldmc.kr

Unwittingly we are reminded of the conflict with North Korea, whose border is just an hour’s drive from here. Should Kim Jong-un ever threaten the center of Seoul with nuclear warheads, government officials would find refuge in the City Hall basements. Around 110 people could survive here for a month and a half.

But in peacetime, these rooms function as the logistics linchpin for the metropolitan area with its population of 25 million: The Seoul Transportation Information Center uses big data to manage transportation throughout the city down to the finest detail, prevent weather damage and keep residents safe—all with just a touchscreen. Youn-gye Yang, the manager, an enthusiastic older gentleman with twinkling eyes, proudly displays the tablet he uses to predict floods during the rainy season, send out heat warnings to the populace in summer or turn on the heating that melts the ice on the streets in the winter. Yang’s command center consists of a 20-meter-wide screen and several dozen computer workstations. On this particular afternoon, however, only two workers are on duty, tweeting out information about accidents and detours.

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SMART HOMES Technology can be controlled by smartphone in many Seoul residences. South Korea’s leading high-tech companies say doors will soon open using biometric security in the form of facial recognition.

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Always one step ahead.

HOW DO YOU REDEFINE MOBILIT Y ?

Individualization frees us from the burdens of ownership.

AMSTERDAM

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Electric, connected, autonomous, shared—Bram Schot, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Sales and Marketing*, talks with mobility researcher Carlo van de Weijer about the future of mobility.

INTERVIEW: Bernd Zerelles, PHOTO: Robert Fischer, ILLUSTRATION: Raymond Biesinger

THE AUDI MAGAZINE:

PHOTO: AUDI AG

According to a United Nations forecast, two thirds of the planet’s total population will live in cities in 30 years’ time. That means the threat of ever worsening space constraints, pollution and overtaxed infrastructure. Do urban mobility concepts need to be completely overhauled?

VAN DE WEIJER: Mobility as an abstract concept will always exist.

Since time immemorial, people have had a tendency to be on the move for about an hour a day, and that will remain constant.

The only thing that has changed over the millennia is The long-term goal at the fact that mankind has evolved and Audi is to become a technology has takzero-emissions brand. en us further. So while By 2025, Audi we now get around will offer more than faster, we don’t spend 20 electric models— any more or less time almost half of them on the go. I believe plug-in hybrids and we will have safe, the remainder purely clean ways to get battery powered. around in the future.

The only major problem with traffic that requires a solution is the space it takes up.

Many studies say that car traffic in urban areas occupies up to ten percent of the available space.

VAN DE WEIJER: If by “traffic” you mean all mobility systems including streets, tracks, parking

spaces, etc., it’s actually 40 percent of a city’s total area. In other words, cities are extremely badly organized. People don’t go to the city to look at mobility.

They go to the city The size of parking to meet other people, to experience spots for self-parking things, to shop and cars is roughly eat. So something two square meters took a fundamentalsmaller than for ly wrong turn somecars parked by people. where. That has to With the same change in the future. amount of floor space, We will see fewer cars a parking garage in downtown areas can therefore accombecause cars are not modate 60 percent an efficient use of more cars if all of space. Most things them are self-parking. that fall into the category of mobility will still be provided adequately through cars. But in terms of square footage, the way we use them is inefficient.

Mr. Schot, how does a carmaker like Audi respond to this accusation?

SCHOT: Cars will always be part of our mobility. But at the same time, traffic jams and parking scarcity are delineating the limits of mobility. Now the question is: How can we organize mobility intelligently such that it creates value for our customers according to their personal needs?

* This interview was conducted in April. Bram Schot has subsequently also assumed the position of interim Chairman of the Board of Management at AUDI AG. 39

As far back as 2009, the city installed the first public charging stations for electric vehicles. By 2016, there were already over 2,000 of them. Today, Amsterdam boasts the world’s densest network of charging points. What’s more, the alderpersons have decided that not only the city’s entire vehicle fleet but all taxis, too, must be entirely emissions free by 2025. In 2018, the introduction of an environmental zone for taxis will ban those with the worst ecological footprint from the city.

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PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, is a pioneering metropolis when it comes to advancing electric mobility.

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Mark Simon of the New York City Department of Transportation says, “We don’t want more cars in the city; we want more bike paths, more green areas, more space for pedestrians.” Will city dwellers need to part with their private cars?

VAN DE WEIJER: If you live in the center of a city, you may need to accept the idea that this fact doesn’t automatically require you to own a car. But that doesn’t mean you can’t use one. So many different services are springing up that enable car use without car ownership. Yet the trend is clear: Cities are re-zoning space that used to be reserved for mobility so people feel good about being there. The High Line in New York, which used to be train tracks and has now been turned into a park, is just one example. Today’s cities are moving away from allotting 40 percent of their space to traffic.

What will that mean for Audi if tomorrow’s mobility not only gets less space but also results in less ownership?

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SCHOT:

I am sure that mobility will become more and more of an individuality factor. The premium experience is still key for Audi customers. But autonomous driving will fundamentally change society, the role of cars and our mobilAudi and the town of ity behavior going forward. A new kind Somerville north of individual traffic of Boston in the U.S. using robot taxis have been working might be an option, on urban mobility for example. That solutions for can potentially make tomorrow’s cities traffic more efficient since 2015. As by maximizing vepart of the process, hicle capacity utilithe brand with zation. At the same the four rings is time, it would reharnessing innovative quire less space for technologies, such parking and reduce as networking vehicles the time each car and infrastructure spends idle. Why as well as shared should cars only be mobility solutions. used for 30 percent of their service life? They could also be used for 70 percent of that time. That will spawn new business models in the future.

Maybe down the road Audi will also sell kilometers driven per hour.

VAN DE WEIJER:

Whenever new concepts like this are emerging, people tend to use cars more, not less. The services now being created do not pose a threat to car manufacturers’ business; in fact, they will mean even more business.

Is automated traffic the golden path to tomorrow’s urban development?

SCHOT: There will be more transportation options. For instance, when I want to go from the center of Amsterdam to Schiphol

audi.com

We see the car as part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Audi is testing swarm technologies, self-parking cars and connected traffic lights, for example, as ways to optimize traffic flow and simplify the search for parking. But you have to understand how people behave in cities.

Everyone needs to take part in this: Urban planners, architects, politicians, researchers and carmakers have to work together to create smart concepts for using the available space in cities more efficiently. No one is efficient enough in their own sphere of action—but by working together, they can achieve a lot.

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Bram Schot, 57 The native of the Netherlands is a father of two sons—“one of them a gearhead, the other not especially enthusiastic about cars”—and is the member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG responsible for Sales and Marketing. He sees far too little of his home town, Amsterdam, where he likes to live in the city center. With all the traveling he has to do for work, he’s already really looking forward to tomorrow’s premium self-driving cars.

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Mr. van de Weijer, you predicted in a recent lecture: “This development will also increase traffic, because autonomous cars are convenient and safe.”

VAN DE WEIJER: Yes, I’m afraid tomorrow’s driverless vehicles will not really solve the problem in cities. Many say driverless cars will transport more people per vehicle. I don’t really Founded and see it that way, because cars will also owned by Audi, be driving around Autonomous without passengers.

Intelligent Driving So the average numGmbH is currently ber of people transworking with ported per car will its parent company actually even drop. to develop suitEven if four people able technology for used one car, that robot taxis. would not reduce the number of vehicles enough for our urban centers. Tomorrow’s cities don’t need driverless cars; they need carless drivers.

In Amsterdam, 31 percent of commutes are undertaken by bicycle. The network

of cycle lanes is 600 kilometers long and 80 percent of residents own at least one bike. In fact, there are apparently more bicycles than people in the city. Is this a direction we should pursue with future traffic concepts?

VAN DE WEIJER: It all comes down to what is known as corridor capacity: In other words, how many people can pass through a 3.5-meter-wide corridor into a city within an hour? The figure 3.5 meters is the average width required for a street or train track.

Today, the corridor capacity for cars is about 1,000 people. If you put four people in each car, it rises to 4,000. In autonomous cars that run like trains, that number could even go up to 5,000. But that’s not enough. A public transport system, such as buses, achieves roughly 10,000 people per hour, while subways push 25,000. The surprising thing is that a cycle lane has a corridor capacity of up to 15,000, which is why bicycles are enjoying a boom as a mode of transport in urban areas. After all, cities need to put some thought into optimizing corridor capacity. How much space do they need to be able to transport a specific number of people into a city? The answer determines what is the most suitable mode of mass transport. That’s why I keep driving home the point that instead of driverless cars, I want to see drivers without cars.

SCHOT:

Even so, autonomous driving will have a huge impact on how cars are perceived. At present, the car is just a mode of transport. You get behind the

* Audi RS 6 Avant fuel consumption urban/extra-urban/combined (in l/100 km): 13.4/7.4/9.6. CO² emissions combined (in g/km): 223.

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wheel and, while you’re there, the only thing you can do is converse with a passenger, drive wherever you’re going and park the car. From that moment, the car becomes an inefficient object, because it’s just sitting there unused. Instead, it could autonomously drive off to the school to fetch the kids. Or I could use it to hold a video conference with colleagues or have a twelveminute power nap. That would make it far more Following the efficient. The car would become part premiere of of my life and make the Audi e-tron, it more streamlined the four rings’ first and pleasant. When, purely electric in the future, I can car, we will see the finally do all the introduction of things in a car that I further all-electric couldn’t do before, models, such then travel ceases to as the Audi e-tron be an obstacle. And Sportback and there’s nothing to Audi Q2L e-tron, stop you using a car. which has been On the contrary, tospecially designed for morrow’s cars will the Chinese market. become the new living space. People will spend more time and have more control over what they do in cars.

VAN DE WEIJER:

PHOTO: AUTONOMOUS INTELLIGENT DRIVING

aid-driving.eu

Airport on a Monday morning, I will be able to choose between a taxi, an Uber or a robot taxi.

But using a shared car does not entirely satisfy my individual needs if, for instance, what I really want is to own an Audi RS 6 Avant* or a convertible.

The new usage models make mobility more efficient with more passengers per car, so overall there will be fewer vehicles driving around on the streets. Increased effectiveness also spells freer traffic flows. And that in turn can mean more fun for me behind the wheel of my Audi RS 6 Avant*.

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Autonomous cars are not going to put an end to congestion over the next decade. But people won’t care that they create bottlenecks because they can work during a journey in a self-driving car.

By the same token, this would, however, alleviate the enormous economic impact of gridlock without actually preventing the jams themselves. If bottlenecks no longer bother people much, it becomes possible to resolve the traffic jam problem without

eliminating it. An upshot may be the ability to schedule congestion, which, for logistical reasons, would be a win.

Does that mean you agree with Bram Schot that swarm intelligence and autonomous driving will make tomorrow’s cars more attractive?

VAN DE WEIJER: Yes, these are the forms of intelligence that spur a surge in quality. If gridlock is no longer a headache, then car journeys are much more pleasant.

As a rule, people don’t want to waste their time in traffic, get into accidents, search for parking or have to park the car themselves. These are all inconveniences that new technologies can banish from our lives. And when the unpleasant aspects of driving disappear, then driving becomes all the better for it. I like to compare it to skiing. The sport became popular when lifts took the bother out of getting back up to the top of the slope.

Which is exactly what’s now happening with automation in mobility. It’s not about driverless cars or robot taxis. It’s about getting rid of what’s tiresome about driving and replacing it with a higher quality experience.

Do you see electric drives contributing to this increase in quality?

VAN DE WEIJER: Absolutely. Electric mobility will be clean and affordable—it’s the next logical step toward the future. Electric cars last longer and require less maintenance than vehicles with combustion engines—they’re the more economical choice. I was very skeptical before I bought my own electric car. Now, I know that a range of 400 kilometers is

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Carlo van de Weijer, 52 A thought leader on mobility, van de Weijer not only conducts research as Director of the Strategic Area Smart Mobility at Eindhoven University of Technology but also heads up R&D at a leading global provider of navigation solutions in addition to advising governments, industry associations and businesses around the world on the future of technology and mobility. He has driven an electric car for the past ďŹ ve years but traveled to the interview by train and a rented bicycle.

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sufficient. I start my day with a fully charged battery and very rarely need a speed charger.

When that occasionally happens—less than once a month— it’s not a problem A key requirement because I’ve already taken the half hour for the future of of charging into electric mobility is account when plana well developed ning for a longer charging infrastrucjourney. And rather ture. This is why than sitting around Audi has joined with waiting during that partners to form the time, I work in the joint venture IONITY. car or eat lunch. If The company aims you prepare for it, to build Europe’s top this charging time performing is surprisingly enfast-charging network joyable and just for electric vehicles. takes one neat click.

By 2020, some 400 Filling up the tank IONITY fastin a car with a comcharging stations will bustion engine, you be available. have to stick a nozzle to direct the flow of fuel into the car for three minutes. Just thinking of those three minutes annoys me.

At Audi, we have also committed to ensuring that one in every three cars sold is electric. My experience is that people who own an electric car are very happy with it.

Don’t the anticipated leaps forward in battery technology also put customers off buying an electric car today?

VAN DE WEIJER: It’s the same problem as holding out for an even better computer. You end up never buying one at all. At some point, you just have to get on board with the technology. I’ve been driving an electric car for almost five years now. And the battery capacity is still at over 90 percent. The capacity loss is nowhere near what most predicted. Off the showroom floor it had a range of 400 kilometers, while today that’s 378 kilometers. So that really isn’t a problem. 

PHOTO: IONITY

SCHOT:

Once charging is possible whenever and wherever, that will be a huge draw for electric cars.

We talk to a lot of customers and many are still unnecessarily concerned about having to make compromises with an electric drive. It’s a very interesting debate, because average drivers in Europe tend to cover 28 to 30 kilometers per day. So this isn’t about whether a car has a range of 400 or 500 kilometers.

The key questions are where can the car be charged, and how fast. I sincerely believe that by as early as 2025, electric cars will account for 30 to 40 percent of cars on roads around the world.

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TO AMSTERDAM

amsterdamsmartcity.com

TO AMSTERDAM

SMART CITY The Amsterdam Smart City platform serves as a kind of project exchange, where ideas and innovations geared to transforming the city in the coming years are pooled. These are classified into categories ranging from infrastructure and technology, through energy, water & waste, as well as mobility, to governance & education. Plus, citizens are just as welcome to contribute as companies and institutions.

20 25 Amsterdam has big plans for the future: Its target

is a reduction in urban COâ‚‚ emissions by 45 percent, compared with 2012 levels, by 2025. By then, the target is for public transport to be producing zero emissions. To this end, the city wants to replace all current public transport vehicles with electrically powered ones.

PEDAL POWER At Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, you are responsible for generating your own electricity: Those in transit at the airport use bicycles to generate electricity to recharge their electronic devices.

PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

Vehicle to grid

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In Amsterdam, there are a number of charging stations that use vehicle-to-grid technology (V2G) to charge electric cars and feed power back into the grid. As part of the City-zen program, the pilot project aims to create more energy-efficient cities.

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Achieving great things together.

WHERE WILL TOMORR OW’S ENERGY COME FR OM? Architecture that points the way forward.

B10—Werner Sobek, Stuttgart (Germany); Photo: Zooey Braun

AN ENERGY SURPLUS The dream of constant surplus: a positive ecological balance; a self-suďŹƒcient house; living spaces with energy to spare. What appeared unimaginable just a few years ago has now become reality.

Holistic Living—Graft, Berlin-Wannsee (Germany); Photo: Tobias Hein

COPY: Jan van Rossem, ILLUSTRATION: Raymond Biesinger

TO AN ENERGY SURPLUS

TO AN ENERGY SURPLUS

Free spirits who think outside the box have always dreamed of outwitting reality. One of the most far-reaching manifestations of this visionary desire is the notion of a very special technical marvel: a mechanism that generates its own power and keeps itself running. Since the early Middle Ages, people have known about the efforts of Indian mathematicians who, inspired by the eternal movements of the celestial bodies, experimented with the theoretical feasibility of this type of perpetuum mobile. Efforts to invent these kinds of machines enjoyed a heyday during the Renaissance in Europe—with even a certain Mr. Leonardo from Vinci getting in on the act. However, the all-around artistic genius soon realized the futility of such endeavors, turning his attention instead to painting portraits of ladies with enigmatic smiles. Architects who had an eye for the future were also open to these ideas. Near the northern Italian city of Verona, there stands to this day the abandoned Villa Girasole, which was built by Italian architect Angelo Invernizzi in the 1930s. The structure employs complex mechanisms to turn with the sun like a sunflower—as its translated name implies—allowing it to make maximum use of the sun’s power and heat or to protect itself from them. However, this unique construction was extremely inefficient from an The term perpetuum energy perspective. Nor do these types of kinetic architectural treasures offer mobile comes a suitable solution to meeting today’s energy standards. Indeed, it would be from the Latin and several more decades before hopes of fulfilling mankind’s ancient dream of a means “in perpetual self-perpetuating power source could be entertained. For the last few years, at motion.” Even least, certain catchphrases indicate we have come a step closer to it: Some talk of an energy-plus building; others refer to an active-plus house. At any rate, both Leonardo da Vinci terms clearly allude to the concept involved: getting more out than is put in. enthused about

The highlight of Sobek’s passion for experimentation so far is Project B10, which landed in Stuttgart—at the heart of the city’s famous Weissenhof Estate—like a creature from outer space. In 1927, under the supervision of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, leading exponents of what was known as the New Building movement, such as Bruno Taut, Mart Stam, Hans Scharoun, Walter Gropius and, of course, Le Corbusier, built showcase apartments and houses for modern urban dwellers here on Stuttgart’s Killesberg Hill. Some of these designs featured experimental materials and new construction methods. Taken in that context, the new arrival is not really alien at all. Rather, it represents the latest trend in forward-looking architecture on the path to a positive energy balance.

It’s actually a look ahead to the future. B10 was lifted by crane as two prefabricated building sections into the vacant lot, which had remained unused since World War II. Even the shell of the house is remarkable. It consists of fabric-covered wooden frames that are one hundred percent recyclable. Werner Sobek describes it as “the most extreme expression of the goal: zero energy, zero emissions, zero waste.” Inside the house, the things that he learned from his Berlin experiment only become apparent on closer examination. The single-story cuboid provides a parking space in which to charge an electric vehicle. As a thoughtful gesture for drivers who don’t like reversing into or out of their parking space, the vehicle sits on a turntable. The structure, with its full glass front facing the street, is fitted with partition walls that can be adjusted to create three square rooms in which the temperatures can be individually regulated. This is made possible by the beating heart of the house, a powerful hydraulic matrix controlled by the smart, predictive and selflearning alphaEOS software solution that can direct the flow of water wherever it is needed at any time. “If the autumn sun can only heat the water to 30 degrees,” Sobek explains, “it is pumped directly to the underfloor heating, where this temperature can be used effectively.” Unnecessary pumping back and forth would waste energy. The glass facade on the street side can be completely shielded if required or if the occupants are out. To accomplish that, the system simply raises the four-piece wooden deck to create a wall in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows. The house generates around 200 percent of its occupants’ power requirements. The beneficiaries of this surplus are the Weissenhof Museum connected to the house—not Solar energy provides to mention the residents’ budget. On Mondays, when the museum is closed, us humans with surplus electricity is fed into the public power grid. And there, it commands as yet untapped top prices. The system in B10 is synchronized with the electricity exchange potential: The sun’s and only sells power when prices are rising. radiation arrives

machines which, once

The principle of an energy-plus building is based on three key requirements that will apply to the buildings of the future. This is because global climate change and resource scarcity are driving a reorientation of energy policy parnever stop. ticularly with regard to housing construction. Houses must consume as little energy as possible. They must harness the power of the sun and other renewable energy sources.

They should also generate a “plus” in terms of electricity, hence the name. To achieve this, buildings must be capable of responding to changing usage parameters by adapting their energy performance accordingly. Designing buildings that are self-sufficient in energy terms is a primary goal.

They should also communicate intelligently with external energy consumers and make any surplus electricity available. set in motion,

generate energy and

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PHOTO: NASA / GSFC / SDO / WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

PHOTO: DENNIS HALLINAN / ALAMY

A pioneer of these endeavors from day one is Stuttgart architect Werner Sobek, one of the world’s most sought-after structural engineers. He has collaborated with leading figures such as Sir Norman Foster, Helmut Jahn and Zaha Hadid, lectured at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago and, as director of the Institute for Lightweight Structures and Conceptual Design (ILEK) at Stuttgart University, succeeded the legendary Frei Otto, who created the spectacular roof of the Olympic Stadium in Munich. As an architect, Sobek designs one residential building per year, which usually serves as an experimental platform. He gained a public profile as a result of his own residence, which he constructed in daredevil fashion on the steep slope above Stuttgart’s city center.

In the design of his completely glass cube, which was completed in 2000, he was already pursuing what was then considered an extremely ambitious target of a zero-energy building. The building itself offers excellent recycling possibilities and operates as an emission-free and zero-heatingenergy building. However, it is not an energy-plus building. The F87 residential building in Berlin was Sobek’s first attempt to build a structure of this type. However, reality got in the way of the carefully conceived theoretical concept. After a test family moved in, it transpired that the air/ water/heat pump consumed well over twice as much electricity as had been predicted. This was due in part to the building’s relatively open-plan layout. Air can circulate freely through the two floors, resulting in more or less uniform temperatures throughout the house. However, the occupants wanted to keep the bedroom on the cool side while maintaining a more comfortable temperature in the living room. Therefore, they switched off the underfloor heating on the top floor and only heated the ground floor—but did so using higher flow temperatures, which meant lower efficiency.

at the upper reaches

From a purely aesthetic perspective, however, projects like B10 are not neces- of the earth’s sarily a big hit. Naturally, the focus in this particular case was more on the atmosphere at an technical possibilities and integrating the design into the historic Bauhaus estate. intensity of around In this scenario, a plain white box is undoubtedly an appropriate solution. The 1,367 kilowatts Snøhetta design firm takes a rather more expressive approach for its energy-plus per square meter. building. Since 2001, this Norwegian organization has enjoyed an international reputation thanks to a spectacular new building it designed on the site of the legendary library of Alexandria in Egypt. Here, the main building, an eleven-story gray cylindrical section made of stone, is set into the ground at an angle. The design focus at the time was more on the aesthetic appearance of the exterior and allowing natural light into the reading rooms than on energy conservation. Their ZEB Pilot House in the Norwegian town of Larvik draws to a certain degree on one aspect of the library design: the use of the inclined plane. Here, a wooden-clad, dark-stained structure points toward the sky at an angle of 19 degrees. In this configuration, the 150 square meters of photovoltaic panels and 16 square meters of solar collectors on its surface, which forms the roof, are ideally oriented toward the sun. In good weather conditions, they supply approximately 23,000 kilowatt-hours per year—more than enough to ensure a cozy atmosphere, even this far north. The main architectural element is the atrium that breaks the dark structural shell including the roof. It lets more natural light enter the building. With stacked firewood extending to the eaves and an end wall featuring rhythmically spaced protruding bricks, the inner courtyard exudes a homey atmosphere. In terms of the materials used, equal importance was attached to their thermal characteristics, their contained energy, achieving a good indoor climate and aesthetic quality.

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It is the first CO₂-neutral single-family house in Austria, and uses renewable energy sources to offset all energy services.

The expressive design of the house near Vienna embraces energy and aesthetic aspects in equal measure (for instance, by offering beautiful views). Inside, great importance was attached to efficient heating and ventilation possibilities—while offering plenty of space to seek privacy.

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FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

Velux Sunlighthouse—Juri Troy Architects, Vienna (Austria); Photo: Adam Mørk

FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO AN ENERGY SURPLUS

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TO AN ENERGY SURPLUS

After all, the building will only exist and be used for a sufficiently long time—and thus achieve a good energy balance—if the occupants feel comfortable in it.

The Zero Plus Energy Lab at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy is a particularly commendable design—constructed as it was to focus on the study of alternative energy. It aims to let the academy’s students experience first-hand the benefits of sustainable living. The energy installations in the Energy Lab perform special tasks on this Pacific island. Cooling, for instance, is a more important issue than efficient heating systems. The slightly terraced building is equipped with a natural ventilation system that regulates the temperature and relative air humidity indoors. If necessary, fans can be used to enhance air circulation. One dedicated air circuit for each third of the building regulates the indoor climate. Generous ventilation inlets and outlets are installed above the next and lower terraced part of the building. The most striking element of this rustic design is the semiopen, integral cladding featuring solar collectors on its upper edge to generate electricity. However, the shading function is every bit as important here because it signifiAlbert Einstein cantly reduces the energy needed for cooling systems. Viewed from the front, received the Nobel the cladding suggests nothing more than a simple corrugated tin hut. Only Prize for Physics when viewed from the side is the building’s true nature revealed. For this in 1921 for his work reason, the aesthetic quality of this functional element has divided opinions on the quantum among architectural critics. theory of light. His

However, a positive response is necessary if energy-plus houses are to gain acceptance quickly among potential occupants. Which is precisely what legphotovoltaic islators want, in the EU for instance, where nearly zero-energy buildings have technology widely been defined as the new building standard with effect from 2021. The Berlin used today, which office of architectural firm Graft has crafted a project that responds to this. converts light Graft, founded by partners Thomas Willemeit, Lars Krückeberg and Wolfram into electrical energy.

Putz, has worked previously with Brad Pitt on the project for intelligent housing in New Orleans for victims of the devastating hurricane Katrina. In Berlin’s Wannsee district, they designed three single-family houses in a project entitled Holistic Living. The name of the houses reveals their nature, which focuses on integrated living, environmental awareness and sustainability. Only ecological building materials were used. The houses themselves are almost entirely recyclable, which has a positive impact on the overall energy footprint. Heat and warm water are extracted from geothermal energy by a pump linked to geothermal probes. Graywater use and a rainwater cistern ensure frugal water consumption, while a ventilation system with heat recovery regulates the temperature and indoor climate. Electricity comes from the photovoltaic system on the roof and is stored in a block battery. All of this is state-of-the-art.

The Berlin firm also pulled out all the stops in terms of design. It successfully created sleek, modern wooden dwellings clad with horizontal slats that are bent smoothly around the corners of the houses, giving them an appealing rounded look. Inside, the houses employ an open-plan design at ground level with a ceiling height of almost three meters. The kitchen and dining areas are on the same level, while the living room and fireplace are two steps lower. This approach creates the contours of a modern cave. This is modernity drawing inspiration from ancient times.

As Thomas Willemeit puts it, “A house needs a core of warmth.” research is largely

It would therefore appear that the combined forces of heating technicians, IT experts, architects and climate researchers have actually created a type of perpetual motion (if one can make a generous concession regarding the continuous injection of solar energy). Those diligent researchers from earlier times who failed to overcome this challenge would certainly have appreciated another of mankind’s impossible ideas, which would have allowed them to experience their unfulfilled dream: the time machine. 

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PHOTOS: MATTHEW MILLMAN, TEAM AUSTRIA, ADRIÀ GOULA

responsible for the

Shading structures that act as heat regulators while supporting solar panels that generate electricity, as used in the Energy Lab designed by Flansburgh Architects at the Preparatory Academy on Hawaii, are an example of intelligent dual-use of materials and resources (top). The prudent use of materials such as natural stone, slats that let in light yet protect against the sun and clever wooden structures represent the starting point of energy-efficient construction: LISI – THE HOUSE, Karin Stieldorf, Gregor Pils & Andreas Claus Schnetzer, Studio Calas (top right) and Fab Lab House, IAAC Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (right).

TO AN ENERGY SURPLUS

TO AN ENERGY SURPLUS

95 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that operations at the Audi plant in Brussels would generate with conventional sources of energy are avoided thanks to the use of renewable energies (green electricity and biogas certificates).

The remaining emissions that are still produced due to the lack of technical and organizational alternatives are offset by compensation projects

Audi and photovoltaic specialist Alta Devices are collaborating to integrate glass lids with thin-film solar cells into the panoramic glass roofs of Audi electric cars.

The power gained flows into the electrical system and is intended to significantly extend the vehicles’ range.

certified according to internationally recognized standards. In recognition of its efforts, Audi Brussels was awarded the CO2-Neutral label by Belgian certification organization Vinçotte.

bit.ly/2uvKGBc

SOLAR ROOF

Why energy-plus?

Sustainable construction also plays a role in deciding the future of mankind.

0.8 °C:

the increase in the average global temperature over the last 100 years.

9.8 billion:

the world’s human population

ZEB Pilot House—Snøhetta Architecture and Design, Larvik (Norway); Photo: Paal-André Schwital

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FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

by 2050, according to forecasts.

Approx. 40 yrs.: the potential time remaining until global oil reserves are exhausted.

60 percent:

the share of the world’s waste that is generated by construction, demolition, etc.

As part of a pilot project, Audi is connecting the home, car and electricity supply to create a smart energy network. This involves linking photovoltaic systems of houses to stationary battery storage devices. Interaction with the power grid is what sets the pilot project apart: An integrated interface links all the systems together to create a virtual power plant.

Driven by the vision of emission-free premium mobility, Audi is developing services that will integrate the car seamlessly into a networked environment.

audi.com

SMART ENERGY NETWORK

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A kind of perpetual motion machine.

HOW DO WE LEARN T O LOVE ROBOTS ?

Creative clashes open up new perspectives.

LINZ

Can robots be creative?

Feel? Love? And why do so many of them operate incognito?

A talk with Christopher Lindinger, Director Research & Innovation at the Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz, on the machines that will play a key role in shaping our future.

PHOTO: ERWIN RACHBAUER

Christopher Lindinger

“ROBOTICS WILL MAKE HUGE STRIDES IN THE COMING YEARS. NEW MATERIALS, MORE POWERFUL BATTERIES AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN HIGH-PERFORMANCE CLOUD SERVERS WILL GIVE FUTURE ROBOTS A GIGANTIC BOOST.”

INTERVIEW: Jan Strahl, ILLUSTRATION: Sucuk und Bratwurst

For this story, the future of robotics is envisioned by the creative studio Sucuk und Bratwurst run by designers Alessandro Belliero, David Gรถnner and Denis and Lukas Olgac. Specialists in 3D graphics and animations, the artists have developed campaigns for international companies like Nike, Adidas and Axe, and regularly contribute to magazines like 032c, Indie Magazine, Sleek and Zeitmagazin.

TO LINZ

TO LINZ

Mr. Lindinger, you have been researching the social implications of new technologies for over 20 years.

What’s your definition of a robot?

CHRISTOPHER LINDINGER: There is an unbelievable number of very different definitions of a robot.

They range from the Christopher Lindinger’s historic image of a machine that more wife is also a robotics or less performs expert. Martina Mara slave labor for huwas the world’s mans, all the way first professor to be to the popular conappointed to a ception of a humanchair of robopsycholoid likeness of us. ogy at Johannes The German indusKepler University in try standard defines Linz. Read an a robot as a machine interview with her with a certain deonline about her gree of automation ideas on human-robot that can lift particucoexistence. lar weights—a very technical approach. By contrast, the Japanese equivalent describes the robot, in a nutshell, as a machine with a certain degree of automation that improves people’s quality of life.

That goes to show how definitions can highlight different aspects. I prefer the Japanese definition.

German engineering precision versus Japanese faith in technology—do these diverging definitions illustrate how open societies are to technological progress?

In Japanese culture, there’s always the implicit Shinto idea that objects can have souls. That

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So has Hollywood influenced the western view of robots with movies like Terminator and I, Robot?

They shaped perceptions, yes, but I don’t think that’s all bad, actually. A nuanced picture of new technologies that is not completely naive and also highlights potential dangers can, in fact, be helpful. When it comes to robotics, the debate on problems and risks is not always given due consideration.

What are you referring to? A Terminator is not likely to appear in our reality, unless he actually travels here from the future.

Ever since Metropolis came out in 1927, movies have generated the image of the humanoid robot. But that image is misleading. Robots will, and should, come in many different forms in order to fulfill their functions.

Just think of the robotic arms used in industry, or the quite simple vacuum or lawnmower robots. But even here, there are tendencies to anthropomorphize them—to give them human characteristics—which is not always helpful. A U.S.-based company, for example, launched a robot lawnmower that featured a simplistic cuteness and was advertised as a family member. That led to an increased accident rate with this robot, because its potential to cause damage was simply underestimated. So it is imperative to consider how best to design robots for future applications so they can cooperate with people successfully.

We don’t yet encounter many robots in our everyday lives at all. Will that be changing soon?

Our fixation on humanoid robots means that at first we probably don’t even notice the robots that are increasingly becoming a part of our daily reality. You could say they operate incognito.

Would you also define a self-driving car as a robot?

Yes. The cars equipped with artificial intelligence that will soon be cruising around without drivers are robots, according to my definition.

One day, when intelligent robots move around autonomously on their own, will societies need new rules like science

fiction author Isaac Asimov’s well-known Laws of Robotics?

Asimov set down his three ground rules way back in 1942.

They say that a robot may not injure a human being or allow a human being to come to harm, must obey the orders given it by human beings, and as a third priority must protect its own existence. This approach is still relevant, and even though it comes from science fiction, it still enriches the discourse. Debate about accounting for robotics in legislation has been in progress in the EU for quite some time.

There, Asimov’s Laws of Robotics appear in the wording of the official statutes.

You coined the term “robotinity” at Futurelab. What does it mean?

The term is meant to express the counterpart to the word “humanity,” i.e. it should explore the nature of the robot existence.

It is an intentional provocation.

If you want to understand the other, the nature of the robot, you first have to be aware of your own humanity and define it. Once you’ve done that, you can compare the two. But we’re not just about provocation or philosophy; the whole project is results driven. It is based on the question of how human-robot collaboration works best. For a long time, the engineers’ basic attitude to that was, “Let’s automate everything that can be automated.” When we joined with industrial companies to work out how humanity and robotinity interact and which can accomplish what tasks in the process best, even the engineers were surprised by the picture

aec.at

audi-magazine.com

THE AUDI MAGAZINE:

impacts the way machines are generally handled, and especially the robot debate. And in this regard, there’s a historical factor that is interesting as well. When the first industrial robots were introduced in the 1970s, Europe and the USA spent a lot of energy discussing what that would mean for workers whose jobs the robots would be taking over. In the end, the robots came and the people lost their jobs. Fear of the robot as a job killer was born.

In Japan, companies agreed that for every robot installed, they would launch skills-development measures and create new jobs for any workers displaced. Is it any wonder that Japanese employees developed a more positive attitude to their robot colleagues?

In their cultural history, too, the Japanese focus more on the image of a human-friendly robot, such as that embodied by the well-known manga character Astro Boy. Western cultures tend toward dystopias like Terminator, in which intelligent robots aim to subjugate humans.

PHOTO: DOMINIK GIGLER

The Ars Electronica Futurelab in Linz serves as a studio and lab that melds technology, society and art in a constructive way. Held in high regard throughout Europe by both creative talents and managers, it is consulted by companies for its insights into questions about the future.

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FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO LINZ

FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO LINZ

To ensure that artificial intelligence (AI) is used for the good of society, Audi established the beyond initiative—an interdisciplinary network of international AI thought leaders—over two years ago. beyond brings together Audi specialists, software engineers, philosophers, psychologists, legal experts and startup entrepreneurs with the aim of creating good teamwork between man and machine.

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FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO LINZ

The vision of robots autonomously operating a smart factory lies at the heart of Industry 4.0. Encompassing both manufacturing and logistical systems, this would be a self-organizing production environment that ideally requires no human intervention.

The Audi plant in Brussels, for one, has set o down this path and has already partially implemented this approach to the extent that some production areas can presently be regarded as a smart factory.

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TO LINZ

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bit.ly/2tBf50s

If technical experts with their rational thinking can cultivate their creative side, then what about robots? Could they, too, become creative? After all, you currently have an exhibition entitled Creative Robotics showing at Ars Electronica.

Removed from their natural environment—factory halls—the robots at the show appear to engage in creative activities. But this is presented with a wink and a nudge—or as a metaphor.

When you look at the projects more closely, you realize that the robots are serving as tools for human creativity. Even in the long term, I don’t see robots challenging us in this regard.

Creativity in the artistic sense will remain the preserve of humans. You can supply robots with data on what we humans regard as beautiful, what kind of art we consider to be aesthetic, which symphonies we find harmonious. Based on this input, robots can produce results that we consider equally appealing, but that’s just a simulation of creativity. And the same goes for emotions. Thanks to their sensors, robots can detect people and even use our facial expressions to determine how we feel.

Given the appropriate body parts, they could go so far as to mimic those feelings or provide emotional responses. But those,

too, are the product of variables and algorithms. When it comes to give and take, there can be no symmetrical relationship between robots and people. Emotions will always be what makes us human.

PHOTO: HERTHA HURNAUS

Ars Electronica, with its interdisciplinary approach to technological questions through art and creativity, seems cuttingedge and evidences parallels with Silicon Valley procedures.

Today, companies can no longer afford not to be innovative, so they have to foster their employees’ creativity.

Designed by Audi We use art to shift people’s perspective and Ars Electronica on an issue. In our Futurelab, the lab, we also refer Audi Virtual Engito creative collisions neering Terminal is that open up new used to develop viewpoints. Creativelectronic assistance ity is a social prosystems. cess: The greater the number of different viewpoints that are brought in and disciplines that interact and engage with one another, the more compelling and innovative the results. The important thing about our approach is that an idea is always translated into reality—by building a prototype, for example. It’s not until things are put into practice that the questions emerge which the theory would never have turned up.

At the same time, whether we consider the resulting object a technical prototype or a work of art is secondary. In contrast to design thinking, which gained popularity as Silicon Valley’s key approach, we call our method art thinking. Let me describe the difference like this: In design thinking, an aircraft manufacturer might decide to develop a

new model. For all the openmindedness and creativity involved in the process, the objective remains a specific product.

With art thinking, we instead put ourselves into the Wright brothers’ shoes and try to invent a flying machine. Our “airplane” may ultimately look very different from what we expected.

PHOTO: AUDI AG

bit.ly/2Mu2Slf

that emerged. Processes become more efficient, product quality improves and economic success rises when people and robots divide up the tasks in the workflow.

If robots can never truly approach the human state, can people instead approach the robot state? Will we upgrade our bodies with technological aids to become cyborgs?

That, too, is still pie in the sky.

For now, I don’t know of any optimizations to the musculoskeletal system that Audi and the would improve on what nature has givJohannes Kepler en us. As for brainUniversity in Linz are computer interfaces, jointly researching they don’t yet functhe intelligent cars of tion satisfactorily, the future. With this either. We’re still a in mind, the Audi.JKU very long way off deep learning center from being able to was established. transfer a brain or even consciousness onto a circuit board. About as far as an abacus is from a smartphone. The good news is, of course, that there are innovations that can benefit people with disabilities. A robotic exoskeleton can help paraplegics to walk again. But that’s not the same thing as people approaching the robot state.

progress in soft robotics, which allows us to build robots whose bodies resemble those of living organisms. This opens the door to new drive systems that mimic snakes’ or caterpillars’ movements. However, the biggest question hanging over robotics is not bodywork but the artificial intelligence that will control it.

Here, the trend is not just to integrate this intelligence into a processor in the robot itself but also place it in powerful cloud servers that are based in a different location to the shell that we communicate with.

So you’re saying that the day intelligent robots take over the world still lies far in the future? Do you believe that humans and robots will ultimately live happily ever after?

I’m a fan of science fiction books and movies and personally like to imagine that robots will save us from extinction. They can perform tasks that we aren’t equal to because of our fragile bodies and limited lifespans.

Who knows, maybe one day they’ll help us make our way to other planets. 

All the same, robotics is evolving at an incredible pace. What advances can we look forward to in the near future?

Robotics affects many technological fields that are currently making great strides. Power supply is a key issue. Thanks to electric mobility, among other things, battery and charging technologies for robotics are currently being optimized. New and smart materials have spurred

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TO LINZ

FOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO LINZ

Will robots help us to colonize space as Christopher Lindinger believes? When we get to that point, self-driving rovers—like the one pictured here—could independently explore alien planets. In fact, Audi has already developed a very similar vehicle, the Audi lunar quattro. Next year, it’s set to join the Audi Mission to the Moon, where it will explore the historic landing site of Apollo 17 and conduct scientific experiments on the moon’s surface.

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RUBRIK

RUBRIK

The nature of robot life.

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PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

ELECTRI FYING INSPIRA TION. Creativity is our sustainable driving force.

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M S. M I YA ZAKI MR. HOFM ANN MR. KEMB ALL-COOK

COPY: Birte Mußmann, PHOTO: Izumi Miyazaki—courtesy bergonzofirstfloor

Izumi Miyazaki

“PUTTING MYSELF ON DISPLAY NONSTOP IS MY WAY OF SATIRIZING THE SELFIE CULTURE SO PREVALENT ON SOCIAL NETWORKS.”

TO IZUMI MIYAZAKI

izumimiyazaki.tumblr.com

Social media outlets offer plenty of scope for creativity—and a new generation of web artists play skillfully with it. Izumi Miyazaki from Japan is one of them.

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The birth of the Internet in the early 1990s marked a technology milestone.

At the time, however, hardly anyone could have foreseen just how far this project’s reach would soon spread. Today, nearly 30 years later, this perception has changed: We can no longer imagine our lives without the ubiquitous web. The rudimentary sites of former days have now grown into multimedia channels, and social networks have sprung up like mushrooms. Our society seems to spend more time online The number of social than off. All this activity is driven by media users is the idea that sharing forecast to climb to is caring: In the 3.02 billion in 2021. digital age, photos, videos and opinions are posted as a matter of course for fans and followers to see.

And to comment on — at times favorably, at others with bluntness and criticism.

This new world has also attracted artists who use the Internet as a stage —such as Japanese photographer Izumi Miyazaki.

The 24-year-old makes her photography available on the blogging site Tumblr. In doing so, she joins the ranks of a new generation of young artists — digital natives, for whom availing themselves of digital platforms is second nature, even though that was not the original inten-

tion in the creative process. But is it still a logical and inevitable step that confers benefits? “The Internet and social media have made it possible for a new generation of artists to connect with each other and make their voices heard,” says Anika Meier, who has explored the topic for the Virtual Normality—Women Net Artists 2.0 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig. Works by the young Japanese artist Miyazaki were also part of the show. “These female net artists project their lives, play characters, create alter egos and assume roles, thus shining a spotlight on stereotypes, clichés and archetypes. They blur the lines between art and life, sometimes to the point of making them unrecognizable.”

Social media channels provide plenty of space to experiment and share art, while at the same time intensely examining the Internet and the impact the chosen medium exerts on art. A new kind of dialog has resulted. From a historical perspective, this is nothing new; art has always been a subject of debate. In the 21st century, it is increasingly carried out in the digital sphere. Social media, however, influences not only the exchanges among art lovers or critics, but also the subjects being depicted. The digital world is fastpaced, flooded with data and character-

Izumi Miyazaki was born in Yamanashi, Japan, in 1994. She graduated from Musashino Art University in 2016.

She posted her ďŹ rst self-portraits on Tumblr while she was still a student. Now a professional photographer, she exhibits her work both in Japan and abroad.

TO IZUMI MIYAZAKI

“Izumi Miyazaki’s self-portraits are grotesque and surreal. She caricatures selfdisplay and exaggerates the nature of the performance exhibited in selfies, because they are meant to give information about a moment. She depicts herself in front of a mirror or with food, just like millions of people who share selfies and food porn daily on social media. Except for

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an ironic disjunction,” Anika Meier says of Miyazaki’s work in the book that grew out of the exhibit showcasing the new generation of female net artists.

Putting herself on display nonstop is Miyazaki’s way of satirizing the selfie culture so prevalent on social networks.

To express that, she puts herself in the social media-savvy Generation C perspective and turns it into her own artistic approach. “I suffered from an inferiority complex for a long time, and felt depressed. That sparked a desire to create light, playful art to help me think happier thoughts. So I started taking selfies—just for me, not for other people,” Miyazaki says. Through her works, she seems to challenge the observer’s perception and sharpen it to take in details.

She invites the fast digital pace to take a break, to slow down and explore the details in the imagery. The popularity of Miyazaki’s approach can be explained mainly by her image as an average girl.

Anika Meier puts a fine point on it: “Her photos quench a thirst for pictures that respond to the mass selfie movement with self-irony rather than self-obsession.”

Although the blogging site helped Izumi Miyazaki gain a large audience in the art scene and with the public at large, she is currently treating herself to a little digital detox. After all, not everything in life happens online. A life untouched by the flood of data feels increasingly like a precious commodity. And not just to web artists. 

COVER: VFMK VERLAG FÜR MODERNE KUNST

ized by the same type of viewing habits.

The pace is different from the spacious, high-ceilinged rooms of an analog gallery. Izumi Miyazaki defines her relationship to social media as “mysterious” and adds: “Social media offer space for interaction. But what I think is missing is a true understanding Virtual Normality— of the person behind it. Immediate Women Net Artists emotions that are 2.0: Both the stirred by viewing exhibition and the my work are somebook feature women times hard to capartists who ture due to the anoreflect the female nymity of the web. perspective of That’s different in sexuality, identity an analog exhibit.” and femininity What’s more, a cerin the digital era. tain netiquette still needs to be followed. Breaches could cause work to be deleted or profiles blocked. This is a newly defined postmodernist angst, which can expose the limits of a feminist artistic approach on the web—primarily in terms of presenting the female body. That is why female artists must often make use of different stylistic means than in the analog world.

TO FRANZ HOFMANN

All at once, everything is blissfully calm. The water’s gurgling and lapping gives way to silence as the board rises and hovers a meter above the surface, like a flying carpet—supported by nothing more than a carbon mast at whose end is a foil which provides the necessary upthrust underwater to create this spectacle. Franz Hofmann balances skillfully on the board; in his hand is a remote control resembling the type used on electrically powered skateboards. The construction under his feet is called a foil (a type of wing), accelerated by an electric motor that Hofmann controls using his right index finger on the remote control. Is this the surfing of the future? Riding silently above the glass-clear water of an inland lake, devoid of any wave movement? For Hofmann, whose youthful face always exudes a certain mischievousness, there is no question that “this will be the revolution on lakes and in the sea.”

UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT e-tron conquers water vehicles: Audi engineer Franz Hofmann is developing a hydrofoil surfboard fitted with an electric jet-propulsion system.

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COPY: Bernd Zerelles, PHOTO: Richard Walch

It’s a fact that one water-sport discipline after the other is succumbing to foiling fever. The America’s Cup, the top tier of sailing and a driving force in technology, made the switch from ponderous monohulls to huge foiling catamarans back in 2013. The Olympic Nacra 17 multihull class, in which Audi sailors Polgar and Werner compete, now sails on foils. Windsurfers use the foils to raise themselves above the water, as do kite surfers. The unique advantage of wind-powered craft equipped with foils is that as soon as the boat or board At Audi, the term reaches a certain speed, the foil generates so much upthrust that it lifts the hull “e-tron” refers clear of the water. This achieves an enormous reduction in hydraulic friction, to the company’s enabling high speeds even with very little wind. This was also how 33-year-old electrified vehicle Franz Hofmann’s kitesurfing hobby led to his fascination with using foils to drivetrains for fly. Admittedly, the engineer’s job in developing hydrogen tanks at Audi means tomorrow’s more that he is working with the very same carbon fiber material used to make eco-friendly the mast and foil of a surfing foil. “When the first hydrofoils hit the market, transport. The I wasn’t impressed. I felt they were too expensive and difficult to purchase. long-term But then again, I knew Chris,” smirks the Ingolstadt engineer. “Chris” is vision is CO₂-neutral Christian Rössler, the brother of a childhood friend from their hometown near mobility.

Hof in Bavaria’s Upper Franconia region. As well as winning multiple German championships, becoming world champion in 2006 and a world-record holder in pylon racing with the electric-powered model aircraft class F5D, he is first and foremost an aerospace engineer. He works as a research associate at the Institute of Aircraft Design at the Technical Audi supports the University of Munich (TUM), where he is responsible for the design of unGerman sailing duo manned aerial systems. “We build demonstrators—or drones—and use them Polgar and Werner, to test new technologies.” In other words, this is someone who knows a thing who compete in or two about flow technology. the Olympic Nacra 17

“I wanted to build my own foil for kiting. A foil is ultimately just an underwater aircraft, and who can build aircraft better than Chris?” says Hofmann.

Christian Rössler analyzed the relevant differences between air and water, special occasions, made some initial calculations, simulated the flows for the hydrofoil—and the team sails came up with a totally unique design. The two of them constructed molds at a custom-designed TUM, perfected them in Chris’s living room before moving to the cellar, where boat featuring they laminated their foil’s first carbon blades. That was in 2015. Since then, the Audi e-tron look.

Hofmann has fitted this foil beneath his kiteboard at holiday locations across the globe—Cuba, Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Germany’s Baltic coast. “I always had a big grin plastered across my face. While people sipped cocktails on the beach and with just the slightest hint of a breeze, I was still able to kite with my foil.” class of foil-equipped multihulls. On

So far, so good. Then, however, the two friends asked themselves what to do next with their design or, as Hofmann describes it with more than a little pride, “one of the best and most efficient foils in terms of flow technology, based on data comparisons.” Both are deeply committed to their day jobs. “We had no ambitions to sell our product in the kiting, surfing or windsurfing market,” says Hofmann. But in the end, it was Hofmann’s engineering work at mobility company Audi that 101

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PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO FRANZ HOFMANN

PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO FRANZ HOFMANN

Franz Hofmann tests the prototype Audi e-foil on Lake Garda. The battery is integrated into the board, the jet-propulsion system sits on the foil in the water, with Hofmann using a remote control in his right hand to regulate the speed.

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TO FRANZ HOFMANN

inspired the innovation that enables him to hover over the water today: “The drivetrain of the future? Mirroring the development of e-bikes in the bicycle segment, electric motors will soon be taking to the water across the board. Since a hydrofoil is simply enormously efficient, it made perfect sense to combine the two.” To this end, Hofmann set about presenting the concept to a diverse audience of colleagues at Audi: from innovation management and the design department all the way to colleagues in the field of 3D printing and several workshops. The unanimous response from all departments was that it was a fascinating idea that should be transformed into an Audi product.

E-TRON E-FOIL The magic foil: At the base of the 100-centimeter-long foil mast sits the foil and tail assembly, whose upthrust lifts the board

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out of the water. To achieve the very high stiffness and low weight required, all three components are carbon fiber. The jet-

At the start of the year, Hofmann’s first prototype took to the water: a kitesurf“AFTER ing board with a battery pack in a watertight case strapped to it. Achieved as early as spring, the next evolutionary stage boasted a battery compartment set A COUPLE into the board. At Kiel Week, the sailing event held each summer in the German Baltic city, the first pre-production boards—the brainchild of a colleague OF DAYS, from Audi design—were on display on the beach. The Kai Lenny from pace of development is impressive, and Hofmann occa- ANYONE Hawaii is one of the sionally has to rub his eyes in astonishment at the large CAN FOIL most famous and number of his colleagues who are now on board. “With the help of Audi, countless products are making their way ON IT.” innovative watermen into the foil and board, from plug-in connectors for the of our time. Not electronics all the way to the jet-propulsion system’s housing, which our 3D only has he surfed printing colleagues manufacture to our specifications.” This is one of the things eleven waves in that set the Audi e-foil apart: “We didn’t invent the e-foil, there are hundreds succession on his foil, of DIY projects around the world. What we are doing, however, is combining he also foils on standour high-performance foil with jet propulsion. This is incredibly efficient and up paddleboards. exceptionally safe.” Some of the electro-foils on the market are powered by Search for: Kai Lenny an enclosed propeller—which is ultimately nothing other than a rotating blade hydrofoil. that poses a high risk of injury particularly to small body parts. In contrast, the jet-propulsion system used on the Audi e-foil comprises an impeller, a small enclosed propeller that accelerates the water, and a stator placed immediately Carbon also features downstream that eliminates the swirl from the flow and ensures that the in the material accelerated water flows in a straight line. mix—along with alu-

propulsion system is made of aluminum, which ensures that the components are cooled automatically by the water temperature.

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ILLUSTRATION: AUDI AG

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PHOTO: ANDY MANN / RED BULL CONTENT POOL

minum, steel and

The key questions remaining are: When will interested parties be able to pur- magnesium—in the chase the foil and how much will it cost? Franz Hofmann: “My vision is to new Audi Space build an initial limited production run in 2019 that can at first be used to Frame of the Audi A8. offer our customers test rides. Current prices for electric hydrofoils are in the In addition, the rear five-figure range.” But can anyone “drive” it, or do you need gymnastic skills? panel of the Audi A8 Hofmann stops short in amazement at the question and counters with complete is made of carbon, conviction: “After a couple of days’ practice, virtually any amateur surfer will resulting in a roughly be flying over the water on it. It is easier than standing on a balance board in 50 percent weight the gym. Watch me.” Franz grabs the remote control, jumps back onto his reduction compared board and uses his index finger on the remote to apply power. “As soon as the with its predecessor. board is gliding along, back off the power slightly, shift your weight onto your front foot and hold your position—just don’t pump the foil,” Hofmann shouts back to the shore.

The board rests on the surface of the water for another couple of meters before rising up on the foil without any change in speed. It looks easy, almost playful. Only the thin carbon mast scythes through the water. Out on the lake, Hofmann accelerates his electro-hydrofoil toward the horizon.

With no other vessel in sight at this time, it’s easy to grasp the sense of freedom that foiling offers.

A battery output of between three and five kilowatts is sufficient to power the Audi e-foil, depending on the rider’s weight.

A battery charging time of one hour offers a range in excess of 30 kilometers. The hydrofoil lifts out of the water at around 17 kilometers per hour and can reach speeds of up to 45 kilometers per hour.

TO LAURENCE KEMBALL-COOK

TO LAURENCE KEMBALL-COOK

STEP BY STEP Are people the energy source of tomorrow?

London-based industrial designer Laurence Kemball-Cook has developed smart floor tiles that convert kinetic energy from footsteps into electricity and data.

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You can’t buy charisma. But you can design it. Interview by interview, performance by performance. Which is how things went for Laurence Kemball-Cook, the creator of Pavegen. He gave himself a complete makeover during the past nine years, going from geeky garage engineer to the impeccably dressed, cosmopolitan ambassador of an appealing, sustainable startup. The idea at the root of his company is as simple as it is brilliant: turn the force of a human footstep into electricity.

No wonder this intriguing approach quickly created a stir—which KemballCook enjoyed, deLike many proponents spite being new to the limelight. In early of New Urbanism, public appearances, Kemball-Cook sees he looked like a shy big cities as potential straight-A student quality-of-life allowing himself to meccas. As long as take restrained pride the planning in his achievement. always revolves around Today he markets people, that is.

Pavegen as an enthusiastic one-man show so engagingly that many see in him the next Elon Musk: a rock star of digitalization.

having locked himself away in his tiny London digs for around three years while tinkering with the technology behind Pavegen, for Kemball-Cook, who holds a degree in industrial design Walking on the floor and technology, one tiles designed by thing was always Kemball-Cook sets a paramount: fun. Or mechanism in motion more precisely, the that generates philosophy he de- about five watts of rived from the con- electricity per step. cept of fun. He calls it the “gamification of life,” explaining: “You motivate people to keep making progress by creating rewards systems, offering immediate feedback, making abstract values tangible.” He aims to generate a new awareness of resources and individual responsibility—but in a playful way rather than by wagging a finger. Kemball-Cook, now 30, is surrounded by an aura of almost childlike lightness that is the wellspring of his charisma—and kept him from getting discouraged back in the day, before Pavegen’s success story even began. That story, after all, started with a dismal failure.

Even when he founded Pavegen way back in 2009, however, Kemball-Cook was no awkward techie. Despite his claims of

As a student at prestigious Loughborough University, Kemball-Cook’s work included research for a European energy

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COPY: Nadine Kaminski, PHOTO: Jeremy Liebman

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TO LAURENCE KEMBALL-COOK

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Bird Street, just off Oxford Street with its nonstop bustle of foot traffic, is London’s first smart street. During 2017 pedestrians were able to generate energy for street lighting, sounds and data collec-

PHOTO: PAVEGEN

Too late to save the project but just in time to perhaps change the world, inspiration struck while he was waiting for the underground at London’s Victoria Station. London’s Tube stations at rush hour are like beehives, buzzing with human activity and energy. What if you could harness that energy and transform it? The idea behind Pavegen was born. KemballCook certainly had all the necessary know-how. So, with rekindled enthusiasm, he set about implementing it. “Once I The technology had built the protobehind Pavegen is type, I had to find based on a kind suitable sponsors as of pedal principle. fast as possible.” As Pressure exerted a typical millennial on the surface sets with the attitude three coils in that visionary thinkmotion that work like ing and pragmatism a tiny windmill. need not (and indeed must never) be mutually exclusive, he thought: “Anybody can design something. But designing it so that it can be reproduced infinitely—that’s the mark of design success.” In his view, design at its core is communication. Not an end in

itself but a service. Something that makes life easier and improves the world directly. Laurence Kemball-Cook is not a patient person. He had no appetite for spending years knocking on doors or buying the implementation of his vi- In 2018, two energy sion by forking over and data harvesting 70 percent of his Pavegen walkways profits to some big- integrated with time player. That was solar panels were the when he discovered centerpiece of an his talent as a sales- award-winning man and struck gold sustainable garden with bold guerrilla at the Chelsea Flower marketing tactics. Show in London.

“A handful of business angels who believed in us provided the first four million pounds,” he says.

“We went into production.” In 2016, another milestone was achieved supported by a crowdfunding initiative, and its success surprised even the ever-optimistic Kemball-Cook: Starting from what was then a square floor tile with a single, footfall-activated flywheel in the center, the Pavegen team developed a three-sided model with a wheel in each corner. “With that, a single step generates up to 200 times more electricity than with our prototype.” Considering the practical applications in shopping centers, airports and pedestrian zones, the triangular model also means less wasted space; the individual tiles mesh together with no gaps, almost like a honeycomb. It uses an innovative click system that’s easier to maintain, generates fewer costs and comes with a 20-year guarantee. This is good news that’s silencing critics one by one. The “gimmick” originally unveiled with great fanfare at technology and light art festivals has now evolved into a viable building block of tomorrow’s smart cities.

PHOTO: PAVEGEN

company, which then awarded him his own project. The task: design urban street lights as a closed system powered by renewable energy. “We operated like a kind of ninja clan within the company,” Kemball-Cook recalls. Naturally, the team first looked to the established resources: wind and sun. “Our ideas were ambitious and expensive,” KemballCook says. He recommended investing heavily in special LED manufacturers and external research contracts—and the company gave him free rein. But after six months, reality caught up with the visionary. None of Kemball-Cook’s carefully thought-out designs were viable; the project went south. “Wind and solar energy are simply not suitable for powering the systems in a large city reliably long-term.

Urban canyons are shady and buildings block the wind. We gave up and I left the company with my head hanging.”

For designer Laurence Kemball-Cook, smart technology and an elegant design concept go hand in hand. Simple to use, inexpensive and avant-garde all rolled into one—Kemball-Cook uses these three ingredients in equal measure. The latest generation of Pavegen flooring tiles works according to a modular building-block system and now features a newly designed logo.

“While I was presenting Pavegen locally, I received death threats at first—and then ovations,” Kemball-Cook says of his trip to Rio’s favelas. That was the setting where, accompanied by a huge media buzz, he installed one of his pilot projects: floodlights for a soccer field in one of the world’s poorest, most dangerous neighborhoods. “The kids were drawn in by their love of soccer—and I got many of them to share my enthusiasm for technology and design.” Right: The beginnings in Kemball-Cook’s London apartment.

PHOTO: SILVIA IZQUIERDO / AP PHOTO / PICTURE ALLIANCE

TO LAURENCE KEMBALL-COOK

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TO LAURENCE KEMBALL-COOK

tion, thanks to Pavegen. Several meters’ worth of Pavegen surface were installed near the White House in Washington, D. C. in 2017, along with another area in a shopping mall on the outskirts of London in spring 2018. The first public installations were along the lines of a show or a PR stunt, such as the layer that was Astana, the capital of placed under soccer Kazakhstan, is now turf in Rio de Jaon the way to joining neiro’s favelas so the the ranks of the players could operworld’s top 50 smart ate the floodlights cities. The headquarthemselves—though ters of the country’s they still required largest construction a boost from solar company had the panels on the surlatest generation of rounding buildings’ Pavegen tiles roofs. Nowadays, installed in 2017. project by project, Pavegen is taking on ever more practical forms. Kemball-Cook recently signed a memorandum with technology giant Siemens in an effort to expand his global footprint even further with the company’s help. The collaboration will target airports and hospitals. “Some day, we hope to offer Pavegen for the same price as regular flooring,” Kemball-Cook says confidently. The young entrepreneur captivates sponsors, politicians and NGOs alike — especially due to his total lack of 112

Kemball-Cook still firmly believes in motivation through gamification. “That’s why Pavegen was well accepted from the outset,” he states. “Because seeing the immediate results of your actions is fun.” You take a step, a light goes on. More than 2,000 You walk along a investors have now Pavegen surface and gotten behind you can decide via the project. According an app where the to Kemball-Cook, energy you are gen- interest has been erating goes. Want expressed in another to light up the fa- 1,000 installations cade of your favorite around the globe. café? Or donate the Over 200 sites in power to a good 30 countries currently cause? “Using a per- feature Pavegen mission-based sys- panels. tem to reward people for their footsteps is our goal for the months to come,” Kemball-Cook explains. Pavegen’s designers are working flat-out to deliver ever more digital benefits; there is no end to their ideas for ways to use the product. After all—and this could be a crucial help with the planning of whole smart cities in the future—Pavegen systems contain lowpower bluetooth beacons which transmit data about movement patterns, providing an idea of peak times for foot traffic and consumer behavior. Another possible next step: the automotive world.

Theoretically, vehicles could use the Pavegen principle to generate many times more energy with the pressure they create when stopping on the road surface.

The charitable gamification of mobility: What’s not to love about that vision? 

PHOTO: SHUTTERSTOCK

“SOME DAY, WE HOPE TO OFFER PAVEGEN FOR THE SAME PRICE AS REGULAR FLOORING.”

extravagance. His drive as a designer is the same force that unites all the successful architects of our daily lives: Design and technology should serve people and only people. For quite some time, he has been using lectures and podium discussions to preach about the “Internet of Beings” as a more advanced iteration of the Internet of Things.

Letting new ideas take flight.

CREATIV E THINKING CAN CHANGE EVERYT ING. The driving force.

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PHOTO: ROUVEN STEINKE

TO THE NEW BEAT

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THE NE W BEAT

Juan Atkins, “the originator of techno”

“DETROIT HAS ALWAYS PRODUCED GROUND BREAKING MUSIC. MAYBE IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH ITS SPECIAL GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION OR THE FACT THAT THE CITY IS BUILT ON THE SITE OF NATIVE AMERICAN BATTLEFIELDS. ONE THING IS FOR SURE: DETROIT WAS PREDESTINED FOR CREATIVITY.”

A city reinvents itself.

As it rises from its ruins, the power of local initiatives is exerting a magnetic pull on the creative class in the U.S. Detroit was always tougher, more challenging and wilder than other places.

We take a trip to a city full of hope. And to the roots of techno.

COPY: Sabine Cole and Jan Schlüter, PHOTO: David Fischer

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PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

TO THE NEW BEAT

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“If you come to make a contribution, if you respect us, if you want to move into the neighborhood and live among us, we’ll welcome you with open arms. If you just want to get rich or check things out, you should stay away.” It’s a statement that undoubtedly rings true for all Detroiters. We follow Mose Primus, aka Ambassador Mose, through Yorkshire Woods. It doesn’t take much to imagine how the brick houses were once neat and inviting. “This used to be a vibrant neighborhood. Then people lost their jobs and homes. The 2007 financial crisis did the rest. A couple of years ago, we decided to take matters into our own hands. Demolish derelict structures. And mow the lawns everywhere—even at the abandoned houses. We want to buy and Detroit was planned refurbish the former school. We’re going to play baseball on the field again.” and built for two But first, a community space is to be created where people from the neighbormillion people, with hood can meet and talk. Mose and his fellow campaigners are backed by Detroit Future City, a foundation that defines itself as both a think tank and their houses, cars strategic nonprofit organization that plays a decisive role in revitalizing the and personal versions city. Responsible for one of the seven districts, Pier Amelia Davis is Land Use of the American & Sustainability Coordinator, a role which involves ensuring that local projDream. After 50 years ects receive technical equipment and financial support. Projects must apply of steady flight, for funding on their own initiative. This is to prevent a top-down approach 670,000 remain, 80 and instead only subsidize initiatives that the communities themselves have percent of whom chosen and planned. Pier is a fairly recent college graduate who joined Detroit are African American.

Future City half a year ago. A native of Michigan, she deliberately chose to move to Detroit. “This place gives me the chance to create something. And make a difference.”

It’s a sentiment that we’ll hear again and again. Young, educated people who have plenty of options but feel the need to bring about change as well are discovering Detroit for themselves.

Terrence West is Marketing and Communications Manager at the Michigan Science Center. When we meet him in Artist Village Detroit, he prefers to speak in his personal capacity. That’s because Terrence grew up precisely where Detroit was—and still is—hurting. One of a family of nine children growing up in Old Redford, he had to fight for survival—there’s no other way of putting it. Terrence shows us his favorite piece of graffiti. A boy sits at the top of a beam, close to the sky.

He’s up there because a group of children below weigh down the beam like a seesaw. Terrence loves the analogy behind the image: “My hood ensured The People Mover is that I moved up.” The others stuck it out here, supporting me, so that I could a train that circles leave. I’m the boy at the top of the beam.” Seeing what was possible and Detroit’s Downtown how it could be achieved, he seized his chance. “The kids here don’t have any neighborhood. positive role models. How should they know what it means to work when Until a few years ago, there’s nobody around with a job to show them how it’s done? How can they it offered a bleak know what a really great steak sandwich tastes like when they’ve never had view of abandoned one? You have to get out of here and overcome the stifling limitations to properties and discover what it is that’s worth fighting for.” dilapidation. Today,

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the vistas reveal

When we ask to take Chazz Miller’s picture, he leads us down a small alley vibrant streets and bordering Artist Village Detroit. A successful artist, he also puts his weight cafés, revitalization behind the neighborhood project. He decorated the walls in this alley that’s and construction just around the corner from his studio with graffiti immortalizing the kings of everywhere.

Motown: Michael Jackson and Prince. Poverty is ubiquitous in Detroit. But so is music, the people’s pride and joy. Before saying goodbye, we ask him if he listens to techno—the music that was invented when Motown could no longer offer anything new. He smiles broadly.

“Of course. But here we listen to ghettotech.” He explains that the dance moves just look better.

Despite—or perhaps because of—the economic hardship, Detroit’s creative spirit keeps on generating

Juan Atkins on a Downtown parking deck at the Detroit Institute of Music Education, where he used to teach. The mirrored sunglasses are a signature look among all Deep Space Radio artists.

deepspaceradio.com

TO THE NEW BEAT

innovations, especially in the music department. The key contributor to the present renaissance is arguably the birth of techno. Techno is black. “Black music from Motown, Detroit.” Its source can be indisputably traced back 35 years to one man, who today is credRadio is fundamental ited as its originator: Juan Atkins. to techno. Deep

We meet Juan at a Downtown café that is the temporary home of a small Internet radio station simply named after Detroit’s area code: 313.FM. Dedicated exclusively to electronic music—chiefly techno in all its iterations—the stake, is “curated by little station’s lineup of international star DJs on this weekend is impressive. the greatest minds in The Movement Festival attracts scores of techno fans from across America Detroit techno.” and abroad. And sets the entire city throbbing. Juan Atkins greets local radioAnd the station DI.fm show host and DJ Brent Scudder, who responds with a casual nod. In Europe, asks: “Where would Juan Atkins would be a celebrity and VIP to be approached with nothing dance music be today short of awe. “Here, you meet the stars in the 7-Eleven around the corner. without Detroit?”

It’s a pretty small scene in Detroit,” explains Brent, who, like Juan, was born and bred in the city. We settle into the small, secret techno club located in the basement of Urban Bean Co., a coffee house. During the Movement Festival, it hosts unofficial parties for local techno enthusiasts. The entrance is hidden in the corner of a dark, dilapidated parking garage.

Space Radio, in which Juan Atkins has a

When asked whether he finds the title “originator of techno” a burden, Atkins smiles serenely.

“I know there are a lot of expectations associated with it, but there are worse things than being called ‘originator.’ I’m happy to put up with it.” Atkins’s focus has always been on innovating and pushing back boundaries anyway; he couldn’t care less about the past. As the godfather of black electronic music, he developed the blueprint for techno with his first music project Cybotron way back in 1981, and went on to influence many young musicians who could play the current generation of synthesizers and were hungry for something new. His first synth was a Korg MS-10 that he cajoled his grandmother, who raised him, into getting. A Hammond organ player, she saw the technical device that her grandson coveted as a legitimate heir with new features. Alongside German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, Juan Atkins’s earliest musical influences were chiefly Parliament and Funkadelic headed by mastermind George Clinton, who also made Detroit his creative incubator.

According to Atkins, “Detroit has always produced groundbreaking music. Maybe this has something to do with its special geographical location or the fact that the city is built on the site of Native American battlefields. One thing is for sure: Detroit was predestined for creativity.” Perhaps it’s because the city is home to one of the biggest black communities in the United States. Or it could be linked to the suffering caused by the city’s decades- Today, Detroit long decline—the gutted houses, many industrial wastelands and the fact that officially bills itself people have to make their own entertainment. People don’t just bump into as Techno City. The each other here. Nobody walks around this empty city. “Where there aren’t moniker references any people, nothing’s going on,” says Atkins drily.

Juan Atkins’s song of the same

Pier Amelia Davis (top left) is known to neighbors in Yorkshire Woods for “her strong commitment to serving the community”—

he has experienced. His efforts include helping people whose gas has been turned off or who face the prospect of homelessness, and connecting them with the Heat & Warmth Fund for Michigan residents. Terrence accepts the responsibility he bears as a role model in his community. Label manager Dimitri Hegemann (bottom right) wants to give back to Detroit, too; after all, the majority of Tresor Records artists are natives of the city. He partnered with his old friends Jeff Mills and Mike Banks of the Detroit techno label Underground Resistance to set up the nonprofit Detroit-Berlin Connection. Julio Cedano (top right) is new in town. He belongs to the “creative class” just discovering Detroit. The art space Grand On River, a former bank, is a good example of the innovative capacities of the young artists the city attracts.

PHOTO: SIMON ROLOFF (1)

a quality not all the area’s young residents are noted for. Terrence West (bottom left) also gives back some of the solidarity

In 1981 Juan Atkins founded the band Cybotron with Richard Davis alias 3070. name, which is a Their first maxi-single sold 15,000 units, but the group split up after their first musical homage to album. At the start of the eighties, techno was radically modern, downright his hometown. futuristic, and its pioneers also foreshadowed the digital era. “If we’d had today’s digital capabilities back then, we wouldn’t have had to devote so much time to the technical side of our ideas,” says Atkins, envious of the current generation of musicians. “On the other hand, we could concentrate fully on our music because there was nothing to distract us in this dead city.”

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The lights of Comerica Park, where baseball fans cheer for their home team.

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On Saturday nights, Downtown fills up with cars, their owners all eager to flaunt what they’ve got.

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PHOTO: LOREM IPSUM

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When the melodious soul sound fell out of favor and Detroit’s acclaimed Motown label could no longer blaze a creative trail, it was time for something new. Techno is the music of new beginnings, of hope and faith in a better future. Based on four-four time, the chilly, monotonous techno beat is an apt reminder of the Motor City’s hard, pounding rhythm and its gigantic, steel automotive plants. At times rough and raw-sounding, Juan Atkins’s compositions can also be elegant and almost whimsical—providing a true musical reflection of his hometown of Detroit. “I’ve always made music intuitively. Naturally, my mood also plays TECHNO a role when I’m composing. What’s more, making music was the best possible way to escape everyday life in a city where circumstances were so dire.” IS THE Someone who owes a lot to techno and consequently to Detroit is Berlin-based MUSIC OF cultural manager Dimitri Hegemann. The German owns the capital’s leg- NEW endary club Tresor and markets the music label of the same name. Juan Atkins and Dimitri Hegemann met in the early nineties when Tresor released an BEGINNINGS. album featuring Atkins as composer. The Detroit-Berlin The open-air festival connection has been going strong for 30 years now and it’s become a matter Movement Detroit of course to name the two cities in one breath. Both are synonymous with a attracts tens of new dawn and creative energy. In addition to their passion for music and counterculture affiliations, Atkins and Hegemann are bound by a shared thousands of ravers understanding of the positive energy that culture and especially music can each year. DJs and unleash. The cost of living is low in an urban environment that needs regenbands hailing from all eration. Such places attract young people and those who want to make their over the globe revel mark and shake things up. “I’ll open a Tresor in Detroit the moment the last in the glory just like call time is dropped.” To move that agenda forward, Hegemann speaks reguDetroit’s techno larly to the Detroit City Council and is in personal contact with Mayor Mike veterans, who remain Duggan. The cultural manager does the math as follows: “Twenty percent of the main attraction.

Berlin’s tourists come for the nightlife—that’s roughly eight million people per year and a vital economic driver. Obviously, the clubs have to stay open until morning.” It’s what is known as the nighttime economy. Thanks to the dedication of international champions like Dimitri Hegemann, the status of musicians and techno has risen tremendously in Detroit. Juan Atkins is also aware of this: “You simply can’t deny that techno and its artists have put Detroit on the map globally. This is the locus of electronic music’s evolution.” The group has already pinpointed a hotspot for nightlife and creative talent: Milwaukee Junction, north of Downtown. This is not only where the music label Underground Resistance Since spring 2018, and others in the industry have set up shop, but also where Hegemann would the City Council is like to open Tresor Detroit. He’s confident it would be the world’s most again in charge of its successful club. Which is music to many people’s ears. own finances after Detroit was forced to

In any case, Detroit seems to finally be charting a course for the future. Work- declare bankruptcy ing together with architects and city planners, urban designer Julio Cedano is in 2013. part of the mayor’s young team tasked with shoring up those neighborhoods which have proved best able to defy decline in the past. “Neighborhoods with the fortitude to hold out against 30 years of decay are the ones that will carry the city forward again. The people there are deeply rooted and know best what’s needed for a return to glory. They will draw others into the process.” And here we come full circle. Detroiters have rediscovered their vitality. It’s a city with a contagious spirit. Julio comes from Boston. So what on earth made him opt for Detroit? “Something big is unfolding here. I want to be part of that and bring about change.” The beat goes on.  A walkway joining Joe Louis Arena with a parking garage spans an eerily deserted lot. The stadium was home to the NHL’s icehockey team Detroit Red Wings until 2017. Today, the futuristic venue, which opened in 1979, is defunct.

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An early Juan Atkins single, “Cosmic Cars,” was released in 1982.

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The energy of a new dawn.

WILL THIS FUTURE MAKE FOR A BETTER LIFE? Happiness needs no cash.

NAIROBI

Africa is ahead of the digital curve: The M-Pesa electronic payment system has revolutionized daily life for people in Kenya and is a beacon for the rest of the world.

COPY: Anja Bengelstor, PHOTO: Matthias Ziegler, ILLUSTRATION: Raymond Biesinger

TO NAIROBI

Bonface Nyagah has finally secured a seat in the minibus taxi when he remembers his empty wallet. As always, it’s jammed into his right back pocket and as always it’s as flat as his twelve-year-old son’s exercise book. His identity and health insurance chip cards are right where they belong, but there isn’t a single banknote, let alone any coins. The 38-yearold watches the conductor collecting fares from the other passengers. When at last it’s Bonface’s turn to pay up, the conductor holds out his hand filled with coins in a gesture of habitual boredom.

Bonface looks at him and asks, “M-Pesa?”

Wordlessly, the conductor digs out an ancient phone with a scratched screen and starts dictating his phone number. Nyagah in turn reaches for his back pocket.

The two men sit facing each other, tapping at their phones.

A confirmation text comes through on Nyagah’s phone first, before also registering on the conductor’s. Satisfied, he tucks the device away before waving his handful of coins under the nose of the next passenger. Bonface Nyagah has paid his fare. The process took all of 30 seconds.

Bonface Nyagah is a family man who works in Nairobi. His wallet has been empty for some time now. Instead, he keeps his money on his phone.

Situated at the edge of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, John Maingi’s States Barbershop and Lounge also bears the unmistakable whiff of progress. Here, hair that apparently has a will of its own is transformed into art, beards are trimmed and pedicures performed on weary feet while customers sit on regal white armchairs, drink in hand, nibbling cookies. With a

golden bus for a facade, the shop is decorated inside with luxurious touches, representing John Maingi’s idea of American life. Despite at least four more barbers who ply their trade within a 100-meter radius, the 28-year-old tourism manager felt sure that no customer would be able to resist this place.

And people certainly came, but they demanded something Maingi hadn’t reckoned on: payment via M-Pesa. Just like Bonface Nyagah, they were no longer accustomed to carrying cash. Which is why today a green sign hangs on the wall next to Maingi’s reception counter, bearing the number 842646. This service, which Kenyans already regard as the norm, is still considered revolutionary Millennial mores: According to credit card company Visa, 86 percent of consumers between

in the rest of the the ages of 18 and world. Businesses 34 like to pay digitally. accept cashless payments transferred between phones via mobile network operator Safaricom’s M-Pesa service. The “m” is for mobile and “pesa” means money in Kiswahili, the country’s other lingua franca besides English. Thanks to M-Pesa, customers can arrive at Maingi’s barbershop in the city’s Umoja district without paper currency or coins and still leave with freshly cut hair. Since virtually no business, restaurant or retailer can afford to do without the money transfer service, they all have a six-digit M-Pesa business number prominently displayed—a popular spot

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It all started because of people’s relatives living in the countryside. Up until eleven years ago, the national currency, Kenyan shillings, moved from place to place in bulging pants pockets, battered suitcases or metal boxes whose padlocks provided the fragile illusion of security. It passed between freshly washed and manicured hands or those covered in the sweat and callouses of hard labor. Shillings traveled for hours or days in buses very much worse for wear on bumpy, underdeveloped country roads and past deserted hub stations.

Under such stressful traveling conditions, the cash was easily lost, forgotten, damaged or stolen. As in most of sub-Saharan Africa, the majority of the Kenyan population live and work as farmers in rural areas. The youth are drawn to educational and employment opportunities in the cities that feature conveniences such as electricity, running water and bank accounts, which are a matter of course in Europe. To this day, few people in the villages enjoy any of these amenities. In order to financially support their parents in the countryside, children earning incomes in the cities often had to take risky and uncertain measures: handing over cash to a neighbor or bus driver who happened to be passing through the village.

Alternatively, the funds had to be sent by postal money order, which could take

weeks, frequently never arrived and was also only possible if the recipient had a post office box. And there weren’t many more people with those than with bank accounts.

But in 2007, several million Kenyans had a cell phone with a Safaricom number.

Their phone number then became an account number; starting from March that year, Safaricom clients have been loading money onto their phones and sending it to others on the same network. Received within minutes, the funds can then be passed on to someone else or withdrawn as cash from an M-Pesa agent. To this day, transaction fees are based on the amount sent or withdrawn.

The recipient pays the equivalent of 2.70 euros and the sender 0.90 euros to transfer roughly 580 euros—the maximum permissible transaction amount. The minimum fee is eight cents. Each individual transaction is confirmed by text message. Just as with a conventional bank, the service allows PESA MEANS users to track all M-Pesa transactions. MONEY IN Two weeks after the launch, Safaricom— KISWAHILI. whose two major shareholders are UK cell phone carrier Vodafone, with a 40-percent investment, and the Kenyan government, with its 35-percent stake—had just under 20,000 active M-Pesa users. Seven months later, that figure had risen to one million.

safaricom.co.ke

being directly next to a portrait of the president—in white on a green background.

It takes two days to process an application for and approval of the six-digit M-Pesa number that businesses need to give customers the option of making cashless payment. Over 100,000 businesses in Kenya carry the green sign.

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Today, there are more than 20 million registered customers who make use of the network of over 150,000 representatives in cities and the countryside to easily load, send and withdraw money. Often, these representatives own small businesses such as kiosks. Four out of five adult Kenyans use M-Pesa as a method Digitalization is a young phenomenon.

In 2015, there were 226 million Africans between the ages of 15 and 24. By 2055, that number could more than double. The average age of Africans is 19, while for Europeans it’s 42.6.

of payment, while a mere 31 percent rely on banks. Although other cell phone providers have subsequently added electronic payment services to their portfolios, Safaricom still dominates the Kenyans market, with 70 percent of the users. As a result, competitors trail far behind with mobile money. Nevertheless, starting from April 2018, customers can send payments to other networks and even link their PayPal accounts to M-Pesa. Very few people in Kenya use credit cards.

The solar panel on the roof of Ntanin Kintalel’s tin shack, which lies in a Nairobi slum. Using M-Pesa, the family paid off

Back in 2006, M-Pesa was actually launched for a very different purpose than digital financial transactions. Originally, the platform was designed for the microfinance industry—facilitating the payment and repayment of loans. But the system’s potential to serve the public at large quickly became apparent. M-Pesa struck a chord: Whether they had a bank

account or not, Kenyans now had the ability to make fast and secure money transfers at any time without worrying about opening hours or standing in lines.

This catapulted the rural population outside the banking system from the agrarian age directly into today’s digital era. The fact that the young, urban middle and upper classes who have always been open to new technology were also quick to take the plunge into the M-Pesa adventure helped the service achieve its breakthrough. The service is ultimately not just a technological innovation but above all a social one.

Transferring money from one cell phone to another was just the start. It’s now also possible to pay water and electricity bills, withdraw money from ATMs, purchase plane tickets, prepay data and airtime, order concert tickets, pay for a taxi or haircut as well as take out small loans to buy a solar panel, for instance, so that you can have electricity in your home for the first time—which is just what 40-year-old Ntanin Kintalel, who is ethnically Maasai, did. Her family of four lives in a tiny Nairobi slum that has no garbage pickup, water supply or sewer system. Tall, lightweight metal kerosene lamps served as a source of light. Not only does the lamps’ smoke cause coughing and make people’s eyes water, but the light is weak and the fuel, at 40 cents per day, quite expensive. Today, Kintalel’s modest tin shack is equipped with a solar panel which she paid off via M-Pesa over the

the unit within a year.

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period of a year at a rate of 40 cents per day, making the investment affordable for a household like hers. The family paid a deposit of just under 24 euros and a total price of roughly 170 euros. Since the solar panel was installed, everyday life has changed dramatically in Ntanin Kintalel’s home. “The children have more

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It even rubs off on people’s behavior: Parents settle their children’s school fees, tenants pay their rent in M-Pesa green.

Bonface Nyagah—the man without bus fare—also buys groceries and gas with M-Pesa. “Once a week, I transfer money from my bank account, which my salary is paid into, to my M-Pesa account,” he says. He has also borrowed money According to through this chanestimates, there were nel, since the service roughly 800,000 offers microloans. home solar systems “That way no one installed in Africa at has to know when the end of 2016, I’m hard up.” Rewhich owners were tailers are increasable to pay for with ingly accepting Mmobile money.

Pesa for online purchases. And many time and better light to do their homestartups and small work,” she says. An businesses in rural areas are only viable allergy the youngest child suffered from at all because of also disappeared with M-Pesa. Kennedy the kerosene lamp.

Wambua, a 25-yearNtanin, who earns a old student who is fascinated by “inliving selling elaborate and brightly novative and revolutionary technolcolored Maasai jewelry, can now use ogies,” as he labels the solar panel to them, imports new charge her phone products from the after work. “Before, U.S. and UK and I had to go to the Maasai Ntanin Kintalel, 40, and her youngest daughter Lydia in sells them on his onnearest kiosk to do their living room, which is lit by solar power. line platform. Withthat. It was often out the opportudark, took ages and cost me about 16 nities M-Pesa has unlocked, he would cents to recharge each time.” never have even thought of doing such a thing. The payment system is embedded For a long time, the millions-strong metin the website: When a customer enters ropolis of Nairobi advertised itself as a their telephone number on the page, an green city in the sun. But instead of afM-Pesa window pops up on their phone.

It lists all the product information as fordable housing, luxury apartments are now being built, only to stand empty well as the price and requests the M-Pesa because they are too expensive. The conpin code. “That’s totally awesome,” struction boom is sweeping away avenues Wambua grins. The Bluetooth headand green spaces. Today, Nairobi’s green phones around his neck look new. “With M-Pesa, customers trust businesspeople stuff is of the Safaricom and M-Pesa vamore,” he feels. “Each transaction is docuriety. It springs up on billboards, signs, mented, so money no longer gets lost.” buses, T-shirts, house walls and kiosks.

TO NAIROBI

He dreams that one day this might put accounts or withdraw funds. “Today, an end to corruption, which is estimated M-Pesa is simply everywhere,” he says. to deplete the Kenyan state coffers by a “Hardly anyone uses cash anymore.” He third. “If a police officer stops me looking believes that the M-Pesa service has for a ‘little something,’ I always ask all raised his pharmacy’s profile in the disinnocently if I can send it by M-Pesa,” trict. “A third of those who come for MKennedy Wambua explains. Everyone Pesa end up buying something.” His in Kenya knows that a “little something,” monthly commission depends on the or “kito kidogo” in number of transKiswahili, is a reactions performed.

“On average, I earn quest for a bribe.

“Mentioning M-Peabout 1,000 euros sa quickly puts an from it.” end to that and the officer lets me go Between October on my way. No one and December 2017, wants to leave a Safaricom recorded 493 million M-Pesa trail of evidence.”

The state, which has transactions valued an ownership stake at 11.8 billion euros. in Safaricom, has Taking into account all providers offerboarded the highing such services speed digital bandwagon: Kenyans can throughout Kenya, pay for 90 percent of all government In other areas of services, such as the digitalization, too, issuing of identity Africa is breaking documents and cernew ground with tificates of criminal innovations. In records, with mobile Tunisia, electricity money. Though esgrid users receive a sentially a simple intext message novation, M-Pesa encouraging them to has turned the Ken- Owner of a pharmacy in the wealthy Kileleshwa district, Baljit Virdi save power when yan economy upside sits in his office on the business’s premises. consumption is high. down. In no time at Diabetics in Uganda all, it has fundamentally altered the way 14.7 billion euros receive texted were moved in the reminders to take people communicate, think and live. Just same period. It’s their medication. as people around the world talk about worth bearing in “googling” a term rather than “looking it up on a search engine,” the phrase, mind that each M-Pesa user can move a “You can also M-Pesa me” is a new jewel maximum of 1,170 euros per day and in the national vocabulary. It’s a language hold at most 840 euros in their M-Pesa that Baljit Virdi has fully mastered. The account. According to the parent combusinessman has run a pharmacy in the pany’s own figures for the financial year Kileleshwa district for 20 years. The area ending in March 2018, M-Pesa generated is popular with the middle classes. Eight 525 million euros, or 28 percent of the years ago, Virdi reserved a corner of group’s total revenue. M-Pesa is now achis store for M-Pesa, where some 200 tively used in nine other countries outside customers per day pay money into their Kenya. On the African continent, these

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include Tanzania, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Egypt; Romania and India also use it. Nowadays, no one in Kenya need travel for days to personally deliver money to someone else.

Some, however see this as impacting social life. There are complaints that in-

lead, China is leapfrogging credit cards, instead going straight to digital payment platforms.

Small everyday items are often paid for via Alipay, the app created

by Chinese Internet giant Alibaba.

stead of visiting parents and delivering some cash, M-Pesa reduces family ties to a problem solved by throwing money at it.

Lawaridhi Namayi, 34, is a counterexample whom MPesa has introduced to new friends who help each other save. She and her husband have been working to build their own home Her 49-inch flat- for years. screen TV takes pride of place in a corner of her living room which, like the whole house, is still under construction. This is the home of a typical middle-class Kenyan family: Lawaridhi is mother to a two-and-a-halfyear-old son and works freelance as a beautician. Her husband Neville is head of news at a private TV station. Through a Facebook group made up exclusively of women who exchange tips on home decorating, Lawaridhi banded together with eleven women from her neighborhood. Every month, each of the women

GLORIOUS UNICORN

bit.ly/2tMmj0S

Following Africa’s

transfers 25 euros via M-Pesa to Lawaridhi, who is the group administrator.

Over the period of a year—which is why there are twelve women—each member is entitled to the 300 euros saved in one particular, predetermined month. When it was Lawaridhi’s turn, she treated herself to the TV that she had had her eye on for so long.

She beams and says, “Saving 25 euros each month is much easier than trying to scrape together 300 euros all in one go.”

The women, however, never meet in person. Only five even showed up for the “launch” at Lawaridhi Namayi’s home. They support each other virtually, explains Lawaridhi, sharing experiences in raising children or difficulties with the in-laws. But the focus is on saving.

As Lawaridhi Namayi explains, “MPesa helps us pool our money. The service has made my Lawaridhi Namayi in front of her house on the edge of Nairobi. life so much easier.”

African startups had a bumper year in 2017. According to the Partech Ventures Report, venture capital invested in Africa reached a record high of 560 million dollars last year—an increase of 53 percent on the previous year. The majority of the venture capital plowed into African startups was concentrated in South Africa (167.7 million dollars), Kenya (147 million) and Nigeria (144.6 million). In 2016, the continent already celebrated its first African unicorn, as startups that are valued at over one billion U.S. dollars are known. The success story is the e-commerce platform Jumia (formerly African Internet Group).

Pay with M-Pesa.

Lipa na M-Pesa.

How much does it cost?

Pesa ngapi?

Literally: How much money?

What is the price?

Bei gani?

That’s too expensive.

Pesa mingi.

Literally: That’s a lot of money.



690 million accounts worldwide are linked to a mobile payment service, according to the latest figures released by GSMA, which represents the interests of cell phone carriers.

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Talking M-Pesa:

IT’S CURTAINS FOR CASH In Sweden, small businesses such as hair salons, gas stations and restaurants are no longer obliged to accept cash. Signs on the doors of many Swedish businesses clearly state: Cash not accepted. Even icecream vendors in parks take payment via a smartphone app.

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BY THE WAY

“GOING OFFLINE ON SUNDAYS IS A SOURCE OF SPIRITUAL INSPIRATION FOR ME.”

Yamandú Roos, 40, artist and photographer.

“This one special day of the week that’s unlike any other is something that all cultures around the world have—and people are more in need of it than ever before,” says artist Yamandú, whom we happened to meet in Amsterdam. His own modern-day interpretation: On Sundays, smartphone, computer, the Internet and appointments are off limits. “Turn off the digital noise that surrounds you every day and you’re confronted with yourself again. Rather than distracting yourself by opening

The Audi Magazine—Masthead Publisher AUDI AG, I/VM-2, Creation/Sales Media, 85045 Ingolstadt Responsible for AUDI AG Jörg Dietzel Project Director Anja Weinhofer Central Coordination and Editing Vera Kraus, Sarah Stemmler Responsible for Editorial Content under German Press Law Jörg Dietzel, Anja Weinhofer Publishing House & Concept loved gmbh (info@loved.de) in collaboration with Mirko Borsche (Bureau Borsche/bureau@bureauborsche.com) Editor-in-Chief Bernd Zerelles Managing Editor Jan Strahl Editor Birte Mußmann Final Editing Timo Ahrens, Andreas Feßer Authors Anja Bengelstorff, Sabine Cole, Angus Frazer, Nadine Kaminski, Fabian Kretschmer, Jan van Rossem, Jan Schlüter Creative Direction Mirko Borsche (Bureau Borsche/bureau@bureauborsche.com) Art Direction Julia Kerschbaum Layout Jana Herrmann Managing Director Peter Matz Publication Coordination Daniela Sutter Internationalization Ilker Yilmazalp Picture Editor Peggy Wellerdt English Adaptation Burton, Münch & Partner, mail@BMPwriters.com Advertising Sales G+J e|MS, Am Baumwall 11, 20459 Hamburg, tel +49 (0)40 37 03-0 Lithography Otterbach Medien KG GmbH & Co., 76409 Rastatt, tel +49 (0)72 22 952-0, info@otterbach.de Production Coordination Cross Marketing Produktion GmbH Printing Aumüller Druck GmbH & Co. KG, Weidener Straße 2, 93057 Regensburg Contributor Mieke Haase Cover & Proprietary Advertisement Cyrill Matter (Photo), Uli Wissel (Hair & Make-up), Eve Sand (Styling), Mijuna Meindl (Model) Table of Contents Matthias Ziegler (Photo) No responsibility will be accepted for unsolicited manuscripts and photos received. Despite careful selection of sources, no responsibility can be taken for accuracy. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. © 2018 Audi Magazine All rights reserved. Article number: 18 849/2102.00.18 THE AUDI MAGAZINE IS PUBLISHED THREE TIMES A YEAR. THE SPRING 2019 ISSUE WILL BE AVAILABLE FROM MARCH NEXT YEAR AT WELL-STOCKED KIOSKS. OUR STORIES COVERING ALL ASPECTS OF MOBILITY OF THE FUTURE CAN ALSO BE ENJOYED 24/7 ONLINE AT WWW.AUDI.COM.

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your laptop, you can instead recharge your own personal center of strength.”