Major cities offer a diverse range of transport options for personal mobility: car sharing, alternative vehicles and a wide range of public transport options, including subways, trams, buses, taxis and rental bicycles and scooters.

The aim is to make moving between different types of transport as "frictionless" as possible. This is known as "intermodal" mobility.  As with many aspects of networking, the key is in your smartphone. Apps offer a curated way through the jungle of options. The goal is a single click to find the fastest, most efficient or even the healthiest route, drawing on multiple providers offering various forms of transport at a range of price points. These ever-more-sophisticated apps, combined with integrated, end-to-end payment systems, promise to save resources and deliver the desired speed and convenience.      

Parking space is at a premium in cities. One solution is for tenants or owners with private parking spaces to provide drivers with parking spaces in private parking areas and garages for a limited period of time. Parking by app so you don't have to bother with a ticket machine is increasingly popular, with the parking fee is charged via direct debit or credit card at the end of the month. Innovators are looking at smart solutions such as radar sensors on lamp post or ground sensors that detect when parking spaces are free or occupied, allowing for the creation of a real-time parking map for drivers. Community-based parking is a similar concept: ultrasound sensors installed in the vehicle permanently scan the environment for available parking spaces. The more vehicles that are networked, the more up-to-date and consistent the parking space information received.

Ride hailing services fill the gap between trains and buses that are inexpensive but have fixed routes, and taxis that go door to door but are comparatively costly. As with a taxi, ride hailing services enable you to be collected from almost any point in the city. The difference is that other passengers with similar destinations can enter and exit along the route, making best use of the shuttle's capacity. In the background, an algorithm analyses the data from the fleet on the road together with the customer requests to determine the best routes in real time. The passenger's smartphone guides them to the next collection point within walking distance of the customer. Ideally, door-to-door journeys or wait-free transfers to other modes of transport can then be arranged.

In the German city of Hanover, Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA has been running a ride hailing service since 2018. MOIA now operates 100 electric vehicles in Hamburg and will soon expand to 500.

One major issue when developing concepts for Smart Mobility in urban areas is closing the gap from house to mass transport or from the last stop to the office. This is known as the "last mile" problem. 

Electric micro vehicles are becoming increasingly popular: mono wheels, personal transporters, pedelecs, e-bikes, cargo bikes and e-scooters. Regulations vary from city to city, but many micro vehicles are usable in bicycle lanes and pedestrian areas.

Starting July 1, 2019, new EU regulations mandate the installation of an Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) in hybrid electric and purely electric vehicles to enhance pedestrian and cyclist safety. The AVAS emits a continuous sound, varying with the vehicle's speed, enabling pedestrians to discern acceleration or braking. When in reverse, a continuous noise is required. Additionally, the regulation specifies sound volume and frequency adjustments at different distances from the vehicle, gradually reducing volume above 20 km per hour due to sufficient tyre noise.

The new EU legislation presents exciting challenges for Hapke and his team. "We want to generate as much sound as required by law externally and as little as possible in the interior of the vehicle," says Hapke. This can be achieved on the one hand by the positioning of the speaker system, which is as far outside as possible, and on the other hand, by decoupling the speaker from the body. "Sound is not only transmitted through the air, but also via objects," explains the expert. The EU requirements will also restrict the sound spectrum. "A piece of music or the sound of horses' hooves aren't allowed," says Hapke.

One of them is qualified mechanical engineer Michael Wehrmann, who has been working as a sound application engineer at Volkswagen since 2011. "For the e‑up! and e‑Golf, which already offer an optional e-sound, we oriented ourselves towards combustion engines," says Wehrmann. For the ID. family, though, it should now sound quite different - like an electrified future. "For me, it is important that the sound evokes a continuously working machine - something like large fans," says Ingo Hapke. A challenge for the Volkswagen experts: translating highly personal terms and sensations, such as friendly and light, into the language of the acousticians. "We work more with concepts such as tonality, roughness, harmony, light or dark," explains Wehrmann.

The acousticians draw inspiration for the sound of the future from vehicles in films, for example, like the podracers in Star Wars, but also from day-to-day traffic noises like trams, or from nature. "The sound sources can be synthetic in origin, but also come from real recordings," says Wehrmann, who draws on measured data, instrument samples and synthesisers for determining the sound.

An electric sound doesn't just come from a single source. Sound application engineer Wehrmann composes it on the laptop like a piece of music with several instruments. He has developed his own software for this purpose: the CarSoundDesigner. Using this, he can also simulate the sound during vehicle operation. At Wehrmann's work station, it sometimes looks like a games console. Because, among other things, the sound expert operates the CarSoundDesigner with an accelerator pedal and steering wheel, just like with a racing game. Using this software, Wehrmann can also listen to the sounds without a vehicle, assess their sound quality and predict whether the volume level will need to be increased in individual frequency ranges. The computer program also includes the acoustic body properties previously determined via detailed measurements. 

Measure, test and further develop again and again - the search for the perfect electric sound is time-intensive work, which does not arise exclusively from objective measurement results, however. Countless times, the acoustics experts run tests themselves and rely on their own hearing and their own experience, testing the effect with the help of volunteers and checking the reactions of road users to the different sounds.

"Of course, the weather also plays a role for us," Ingo Hapke continues. For example, slush reflects sound waves more strongly, whereas a closed covering of snow deadens them. But the Volkswagen acousticians must also take into account the interplay between several electric vehicles. There must be no interference by the cars' sounds that could lead to unpleasant situations. "We are working on the computer and the moving car alike - this makes the work  

For the development of the perfect sound, different measuring methods are required. These two microphones are attached to a separator disc made of wood and thus simulate the stereo sound as it would be perceived by a human head.