“Leaping Ahead in Vehicle Quality”

Where do things stand in Germany?

Eidel: In Germany, we are very busy with the insurance issues and legal provisions. Autonomous driving is only permitted at low speeds in scattered venues. This limits the opportunity for testing.

So, the technology is being developed in the United States – and the laws governing it in Germany?

Stickel: We are actively dealing with the risks. That’s fine. But I would really like to see us look more closely at the opportunities. It’s time that we discuss autonomous driving in public, not just within the industry. We need to bring people along using the opportunities that are emerging. From driving comfort to the environmental aspects.

Bock: Just a moment! I’m still not yet convinced that the environment is really an issue here. As we just discussed, the number of users can increase just as easily – for example, because you won’t need a driver’s license anymore.

How would human drivers react in these types of situations?

Eidel: At these times, human beings in fact make decisions almost completely arbitrarily. In this discussion, we are asking the autonomous automobile to assume a huge obligation: to make decisions that are ethically more correct than those of human beings. Maybe you recall the case involving an automated car causing an accident because it failed to see a truck with a white canvas cover. It made headlines, but what was lost was the fact that the car was traveling 9 kilometers per hour above the speed limit. The reason was even more interesting: The vehicle had been learning from its environment and all the human drivers were driving too fast as well.

Is the transitional phase from mixed traffic with human drivers as well as automated vehicles becoming the major challenge?

Bock: Yes, exactly. In a crowd, automated vehicles travel across an intersection without a problem. But how do they react to the errors of human drivers whose actions they simply cannot predict? And what if there is no “transition phase”? Is it possible that we never reach 100 percent automated driving?

Eidel: A full 93 percent of accidents are at least partly the fault of the driver at this point. One possible solution would be to delineate certain inner-city areas.

This lines up nicely with your call for a go-ahead on more testing.

Stickel: Yes, because we can persuade more people with tests. We can’t wait until everything is absolutely perfect, for everything to work across the board at a single stroke. I think individual cities or districts should move forward with pilot projects.

Would you feel safe in a world with automated driving?

Stickel: I would feel safer than I now do on a bicycle. I’m convinced that we can already prevent more deaths with the existing state of technology. Of course, what we need is an insurance model that tells us, without any gaps, who would be liable in a worst-case scenario.

Bock: I see that as a smaller problem because insurance companies will have to pay out far less overall.

Stickel: This is where legislators come into play. My fear is that we’re a bit late to the game in Germany and Europe and others are getting underway more quickly. There are already a great many cooperative ventures with companies developing autonomous vehicles. Some manufacturers have streaming services on board on an exclusive basis. Anyone who wants to be involved in the future needs to climb aboard, in the truest sense of the word, at this stage. I can easily imagine products from Freudenberg Sealing Technologies, especially in the area of smart products, in this area. In any case, we’re going to give some thought to the business fields that can be developed here.