Herbert Diess is confronted with Greenpeace on the sidelines of the IAA.
Meanwhile, the CEO raves about how much money people will spend on mobility in the future.
Munich - At Volkswagen they had imagined Sunday to be so beautiful.
In the Isarpost in downtown Munich, the assembled VW board wanted to get the journalists in the mood for the IAA Mobility on topics such as software, mobility and sustainability.
But then everything turned out very differently.
In front of the event location on Sonnenstrasse, Greenpeace activists watched VW boss Herbert Diess *. First there was a bit of small talk about Diess' latest trip to the Zugspitze. Then the environmental organization went on the attack. "We have a personal version of our lawsuit for you," said Greenpeace traffic and environmental expert Marion Tiemann Diess about the cordon.
The announcement caused a small drop in temperature for Diess' entourage.
"Do we have someone from Legal here", Diess' new head of communications, Nicole Mommsen, asked her colleagues.
The Wolfsburg had.
Finally the lawsuit had emerged.
It was only on Friday that Greenpeace and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) announced cease and desist statements against VW, BMW and Mercedes-Benz.
In essence, the corporations should commit themselves not to sell any more combustion engines by 2030 at the latest.
VW boss Diess criticizes Greenpeace - and raves about the "next mega-topic"
Now Greenpeace also had the right complaint ready. VW's decarbonization path is not "compatible with the goal that the global temperature may rise by a maximum of 1.5 degrees due to the greenhouse effect," said Greenpeace traffic expert Tiemann. The group is in the process of reducing CO2 emissions a little, but not fast enough.
Diess found that "a little unfair". “We do what we can,” the VW boss asked for understanding. There are other companies that emit significantly more carbon dioxide, such as "Saudi Aramco". The Saudi oil giant - after all the most expensive company in the world - extracts the barrel of crude oil for eight dollars and sells it for 50, Diess complained. The VW boss asked whether such corporations should not be targeted by environmental activists.
Greenpeace is well aware of this argumentation gap.
After the VW boss received his copy of the complaint, the camera-compatible protest was over and Diess was finally able to move on to the actual topic of the evening, autonomous driving.
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Herbert Diess and Marion Tiemann: VW boss meets Greenpeace activist.
© Jan Petermann / dpa
“This will be the next mega topic for the industry,” the engineer enthused to journalists afterwards.
In just a few years, the first ghost vehicles could make their way on highways and through city centers.
To get the project up and running, the group secured 40 percent of the US startup Argo AI a good two years ago.
Another 40 percent is owned by Ford. The Wolfsburg-based company has cost their shares $ 2.6 billion.
Now things are going well - also in Munich.
VW at the IAA: Autonomous driving as a turning point - "Spend more on mobility"
At Munich Airport *, Argo has set up its own test track, complete with traffic lights, mud cannons and virtual pedestrians, so-called preps, who are suddenly pulled onto the street on steel cables for hardcore testing.
200 employees are working on driving without a driver in the Argo development center on Ungererstrasse, says Argo site manager Reinhard Stolle. Another 50 positions for highly qualified specialists are to follow quickly, including experts in machine learning or the integration of sensor technology into the on-board electronics of vehicles. And even that is just the beginning.
Because autonomous driving is a Herculean task *. “The world is underestimating how complex the subject is,” warned Argo boss Bryan Salesky on the VW car night on Sunday evening in an interview with Diess. It is a project of several generations.
At VW they don't let that put them off. After all, technology opens up undreamt-of possibilities. Computers are never "tired, inattentive or drunk," says the company. Thanks to self-driving cars, people regain a lot of time.
In the future, VW boss Diess enthuses in view of these prospects, people would “not spend less, but more on their mobility”. This thesis already applies to fuel prices *. At Greenpeace, this is unlikely to cause storms of enthusiasm. Meanwhile, the protest alliance is also making serious allegations against the city of Munich and the organizer.
* Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA
