If you are managing director or on the board of directors of a small German enterprise, you are really lucky. You get huge amounts of high-gloss magazines, professional journals, extra editions, even normal newspapers for free. One or several magazines are in my letter box on an almost daily basis.
You find a lot of material. All sectors and topics are represented. You get stuff from enterprises, associations, universities, federally sponsored projects, from the IHK, the health insurance companies, etc.
And you get a lot of lobbyism. You get to read about hotels, fairs, workshops, research, technologies and always again business and economy. Some of the magazines are quite thick, some are quite thin. Some are multi-coloured, some are more decent. More often than not, fantastic prices are printed on the title page. I am sure nobody would ever pay them.
In the beginning, you try to forward those unwelcome benefactions to people who might perhaps be interested. Since, however, those people are just getting annoyed by the extra work, you throw the magazines into the rubbish bin more and more often at first sight.
It happens very rarely indeed that such paper-spam arouses my curiosity. Then I take a closer look. This week, it happened when I found a journal simply named ATZ elektronik . It looked rather unobtrusive. And I found some things in there that were quite amazing (for me).
We are talking the current edition: ATZ – 02 of April 2011 – Volume 16. I just opened it at random, and what I saw first was a fat header in blue capital letters:
“THERE IS THE DANGER THAT CARS MIGHT BE DE-EMOTIONALIZED”
and in red:
“25 % of the people aged between 18 and 25 do not buy a car.”
On page 18, there is an interview with Professor Stefan Bratzel of the “Fachhochschule für Wirtschaft (FHDW)” at Bergisch Gladbach on the main topic:
WAYS TOWARDS DRIVING AUTONOMOUSLY.
I am stunned. What a horror vision. But Herr Bartzel does a good job reasoning in favour of it. Here are some citations of his meant to whet your appetite. Please read the whole interview online:
… Fortunately, not all potential buyers, but at least 20 to 25 % of the 18 to 25-year-olds forego owning a car in favour of, for instance, having a bigger flat and enjoying more leisure time activities. Those are definitely lost to the cause of using a car as status symbol and the emotionality associated with it. For me, this is a warning, because it shows a trend which, incidentally, can be traced to Japanese and German metropolitan cities. Our studies have shown this for several years now …
… What I am talking about is the danger of de-emotionalizing. If that happens,, the producers of premium models might well decide to pack up …
… there is a tendency towards less people wishing to own a car…
But Professor Bartzel also sees a chance:
… For me, the topic (DRIVING AUTONOMOUSLY – reminder by the author), however, goes beyond this. Because there is a huge chance in re-emotionalizing auto-mobility. Now would it not be really cool for the young people – and for me as well – if the car were to leave the parking garage of its own accord and meet the driver at the exit…
And he also has an answer to the question:
How can we manage to get reasonable innovations in the field of driver’s assistance towards autonomous driving onto the streets?
It is:
Not through politics …
On the internet, you will find quite a few comments on this interview at motortalk.de. One of the comments is:
…. As I see it, the entire interview is totally gaga. …
I would dearly like to say the same. But, basically, I find it a lot worse. It shows a way of thinking we simply have no room for in the future.
And I can only hope that Prof. Stefan Bratzel is paid by the automobile industry, rather than by the Ministry of Education.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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