After the car was invented in 1885, motorization becomes the icon of social advancement. In the second half of the twentieth century, urban planners design the car-friendly city, which is primarily put into practice in sprawling American metropolises, where it remains a reality today: “In the United States, people have made extensive use of the available space and spread out across the country, meaning that the population density is so low that it is difficult to develop public transportation networks,” emphasizes Professor Dirk Heinrichs. He is the head of the “Mobility and Urban Development” research department at Berlin’s DLR Institute of Transport Research. In cities with populations of more than one million, such as Phoenix and Houston, people cover up to 92 percent of the total distance they travel around with city with their own cars. And even outside of the US, the car led to the creation of new residential areas – suburbs around highly populated cities are seen as the ideal place to live, with one or even two cars in the garage for the commute to work. Small towns only survive because their residents remain flexible thanks to owning their own cars.

The future of mobility will see our commute to work less dependent on inflexible public transportation timetables, since working hours will increasingly free themselves from the chains of the classic “9 to 5” schedule. At the same time, continued urban sprawl is resulting in even longer commutes to work, making it all the more important to use the travel time wisely – in autonomous vehicles, passengers can either relax or work. Growing urbanization is also increasingly shining the spotlight on mobility when it comes to leisure activities. How can people quickly and cleverly get to their favorite climbing wall, mountain bike trail, or lake? Changes in our consumer behavior also call for new mobility concepts, as ZF’s 2016 study on the future entitled “The Last Mile” shows. An increase in online shopping, more deliveries, and ideally, one-hour delivery is all leading to package delivery services having to make multiple deliveries of smaller quantities in increasingly decentralized logistics operations.

Conventional mobility concepts for transporting passengers and goods are already struggling to make things work today. “We are currently seeing a radical shift in the structure of work and transportation,” says Chris Urmson. He is the co-founder and CEO of the mobility startup Aurora Innovation as well as former head of Google’s self-driving car program. Mr. Urmson has identified three disruptive developments that are playing out simultaneously and paving the way for new solutions. First: the transition from the combustion engine to the electric motor . Second: vehicles’ increasing connectivity. Third: autonomous driving. Based on these developments, a study on the future conducted by the German automobile club ADAC has outlined different features that will shape our mobility in the future and have an effect on one another.