Audi study on autonomous driving: Sleeping at the wheel, still a ways off ...

That applies to the city. But what about the countryside?

Klawitter: In the countryside, people will mostly continue to drive their own cars, but autonomously driving people movers, as in the city, will also expand the mobility offering in rural areas, providing better access to infrastructure, such as shopping facilities.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges on the way to that?

Klawitter: The biggest challenge will certainly be the technology itself. It must enable the highly automated driving function smoothly and, above all, safely. Only then, and this is the second challenge, will it be accepted by society and given the corresponding trust. The third challenge is also obvious to me: We need a harmonization of regulations at the international, at least the European, level. Otherwise, the operational range of the vehicles would be limited across borders, and the technical differentiation due to respective national traffic law requirements would be extremely complex.

How advanced are other countries in this respect?

Klawitter: In terms of the legal framework, Germany is clearly the leader in Europe. And also regarding technology, we are up there: Audi and CARIAD demonstrated this last year at the IAA in Munich with the Automated Valet Parking showcase. The car is parked at the entrance of the car park and, controlled by an app, drives itself to its parking spot. But what's also important here is the high safety standard, which is simply assumed and legally protected. In the other leading markets, the USA and China, we sometimes observe a different approach. In the USA, technical innovations are approached with more curiosity, accepting certain risks. The German legislator, on the other hand, correctly approaches this evolutionary technology in smaller steps to minimize potential risks. The German standards for automated driving at level L4, therefore, stipulate that the function may only be used in previously approved operational areas. To build trust in the function, the law also provides for various levels of security.

What are the next steps?

Klawitter: The focus of the law for level 4 currently still includes the people mover and logistics traffic, under strict conditions for the use of vehicles with an automated driving function, without requiring a human as the driver. However, this is currently only possible in pre-approved operational areas in public road traffic. The focus here is still on the people mover and logistics traffic. The next step will be to apply this to vehicles in the ownership sector as well.

And that's how it will be in 2030?

Klawitter: Yes, I believe so. But the path to that will be taken cautiously and step by step in Germany, especially on the legal side. Evolutionary rather than revolutionary as in the USA or China. This can be an advantage because the evolutionary path can build trust in the quality of the function, which our customers also expect from us.

Short biography: Uta Klawitter, born in Bremen, studied law at the University of Osnabrück, where she obtained her doctorate in 1996. She rounded off her education with an Executive MBA from the Kellogg School of Management in the USA and WHU (Otto Beisheim School of Management) in Germany. She began her career in 1995 as an Associate at the international law firm Shearman & Sterling. In 1998, she moved to DaimlerChrysler as Head of Corporate Law. In 2001, she became Head of Corporate and Capital Markets Law at Deutsche Telekom. In 2010, she moved to Fresenius as Head of the Legal Department. Since July 1, 2019, Uta Klawitter has been leading the Central Legal Service of AUDI AG.