During her visit to the VIRTUAL VEHICLE, FBM Leonore Gewessler was able to get a comprehensive picture of the successful work of the research center. As the Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, she was particularly interested in what technologies could be delivered to meet the major challenges of “Integrated Transport” and “Green Mobility”.

Innovative projects were presented, a) the use case in Graz, where the complete solution of an integrated public transport concept is realized with autonomous shuttles at the streetcar terminus, picking up passengers to transport them to a shopping center if needed, b) virtual validation and virtual commissioning based on the examples of Autonomous Racing Graz (Roborace Challenge) and safeguarding of a new braking system for railroads, c) improvement of safety and efficiency of Li-ion batteries and electrified test vehicles. Special emphasis was placed on the paramount role and importance of the Digital Twin for observation, prognosis and control of automotive, rail, electrification as well as vehicle2grid infrastructure systems.

“The mobility of the future is sustainable, digital and multimodal. Together with our partners, we supply key technologies for industry so that innovative solutions can be implemented and brought to market more quickly. The success of sustainable mobility is accelerated by the attractiveness and reliability of innovative solutions,” explained VIRTUAL VEHICLE CEO Jost Bernasch during the visit. Current figures back this up: VIRTUAL VEHICLE and its 300-strong team were able to bring a project volume of over €36 million from H2020 to Austria, with a large proportion of the EU research funds coming from the areas of “Green Mobility”, “Digital Twin” and Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

During her visit, Federal Minister Gewessler showed great interest in the projects and research work on display: “With its research topics on “Green Mobility” and “Integrated Transport” and as a member of SDGwatch Austria and the research network for “Green Vehicle Technologies”, VIRTUAL VEHICLE follows a clear line for innovative future technologies of an integrated and environmentally friendly mobility of tomorrow”.