Mobility | Allianz Knowledge

Mobility
Brazil at a turning point

With the World Cup and Olympics just around the corner, Brazil is investing ...
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Mobility
LEDs illuminate the future for car headlights

LED headlights offer advantages over traditional lights but cost has confined ...
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Mobility
How inter-connectedness is impacting mobility

Demographic and technological changes are having a profound effect on mobility, ...
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Mobility
The world's most challenging infrastructure projects

Around the world, governments and investors are pumping billions of dollars ...
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Mobility
Trading places: the new world order

New trade routes are transforming world commerce as Silk Road turns to Tablet ...
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Mobility
The infrastructure the world needs

The world faces an infrastructure crisis. The basic facilities needed for ...
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Pupils watch the effect produced by liquid nitrogen during a demonstration at a local grammar ... / Credits: Reuters

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Allianz knowledge on mobility: an artists's impression of an Airbus concept plane

Allianz knowledge on mobility: Airbus predicts future aircraft will have bionic cabin structures based on bord bones.

Allianz knowledge on mobility: a transparent membrane makes up the future aircraft cabin

Allianz knowledge on mobility: a passenger on an Airbus concept plan looks through the intelligent cabin membrane.

Allianz knowledge on Mobility: smart chairs harvest aircraft passengerss body heat to power cabin appliances

Allianz knowledge on mobility: the holographic virtual reality golf game on the Airbus concept plane

allianz knowledge on mobility: Airbus concept planes fly in formation along express skyways

allianz knowledge on mobility: an Airbus concept plane takes off

Allianz knowledge on mobility: an Airbus concept plane performs a steep eco-climb

Allianz knowledge on mobility: an Airbus concept plane in a free-glide approach

allianz knowledge on mobility: An airbus concept plane being taxiied to its disembarkation slot.

Allianz knowledge on mobility: jatropha seeds for biofuels in a Mexican lab

Mobility The future of flight Airbus offers a vision of what leaner, greener air travel could look like in 2050. more

Driver assistance systems bouncing ball / Credits: Allianz

Mobility: Interactive Animation Driver assistance systems Explore six driver assistance innovations that improve your safety on the ... more

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The first SARTRE (SAfe Road TRains for the Environment) autonomous convoy was tested successfully ... / Credits: Volvo Car Corporation

Mobility Future transportation: Remote control convoys Three cars and a truck drove themselves bumper-to-bumper down a Spanish highway ... more

The SARTRE (SAfe Road TRains for the Environment) road train on a public highway

A Volvo employee enjoys coffee and the paper while his car is driven remotely by the truck in front.

A graphic showing a road train convoy of remote controlled vehicles

A graphic showing how a vehicle joins a road train

A graphic showing the in-car activities drivers can engage in whilst part of a road train.

A graphic showing a car leaving a remote controlled road train of vehicles.

Linda Wahlström, Project Manager for the SARTRE (SAfe Road TRains for the Environment) road train project at Volvo Car Corporation.

Mobility Road train gallery Here's an image gallery showing how remote controlled convoys, or 'road trains' will ... more

Car light trails are pictured as traffic jam along a main road in Sao Paulo.

A wreckage of an old car is carried by a crane at a junkyard.

New cars are covered with protective covers before they are loaded for export on a transport ship.

Cars line up to fill their tanks with compressed natural gas (CNG) at a Buenos Aires gas station.

A Thai worker installs a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) tank in a car at a garage.

Thai police uses cooking oil.

Former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva sits in a tri-fuel car which runs on Gasoline, Biofuel or Natural Gas.

Plug-in hybrid vehicle.

Car on high speed.

Mobility Green up your car Climate change and dwindling fossil fuel resources are pushing us to rethink our driving ... more

Animation / Credits: Allianz

Mobility: Animation Green Car Learn how your car can be made more energy-efficient.
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An ’Electric Networked-Vehicle’ is driven by a General Motors' staff member.

Mercedes Benz F-Cell Hydrogen Fuel-Cell car.

Press gather around the "Ale," an experimental, highly fuel-efficient car built by Fuelvapor Technologies.

The Toyota Prius.

The Volkswagen One-Liter car, also known as the 1L, is a two-person concept car designed to use just 1 liter of fuel per 100 kilometers (235 miles per gallon).

As a world leader in biofuels production, Brazil is home to so-called "flex-fuel" cars that run on either biofuel, conventional gasoline, or a combination of both. The latest example is the Obvio! 828.

The concept car MILA is a standard 1.6-liter four-cylinder model converted to run on natural gas alone.

New Zealand's solar car "Solar Fern" at the World Solar Challenge.

A woman holds a funnel as she waits to refill the fuel tank of an eco-friendly car.

An electric-powered e-jeepney drives past regular jeepneys, one of the Philippines' most recognizable icons, during its test run in Manila.

Mobility Green cars for a warming world A new breed of cars offers climate-friendly mobility that promises to reduce carbon ... more

A girl rides on the back of a motorcycle at a busy street in downtown Hanoi. / Credits: Reuters

Mobility Road safety challenges demand behavioral change The Allianz Center for Technology’s latest report spells out the components of ... more

In 2011, the sun unleashed a medium-sized solar flare. According to the World Meterological ... / Credits: Reuters

Mobility: Interview Solar storms could wreak havoc Michael Bruch, risk consultant at the industrial insurer Allianz Global ... more

Mobility: Interview Walkable cities key to mobility of elderly International Transport Forum Young Researcher of the Year, Dr. Wing Yee Winnie ... more

Workers are seen silhouetted as they repair lights on a globe structure outside a mall in Manila. / Credits: Reuters

Mobility: Interview What holds the world together KPMG’s James Stewart, Chairman of Global Infrastructure & Stephen Beatty, ... more

TEDGlobal 2012: Jonathan Trent on how to use algae for producing biofuel. / Credits: James Duncan Davidson

A brown bear and her cub in Romania

Kid's play soccer in the streets of Rio de Janeiro

A seal on a rock in Scotland

The Manu River basin in Peru

African children reading

Maldives atoll

South African elephants

A wolf on a rock in Sweden

Rural area in Africa

Archaeological digging area in Italy

Mobility Building not beaching: Volunteer vacations Are you planning your next holiday? How about an adventurous trip with a purpose instead ... more

Exhibition Road, London aerial view

Traffic lights at Kew Bridge intersection, Brentford, London

A street level view of Exhibition Road, London before reconstruction

A street level view of Exhibition Road, London after reconstruction

Busy traffic on Exibition Road, London

Shared space on Exhibition Road, London

The old Laweplein intersection in Drachten, Holland

The new Laweplein squareabout in Drachten, Holland

Cyclists cross the road in the Laweplein squareabout in Drachten, Holland

A cyclist on the Laweplein squareabout signals to watching motorists

A bicycle parked on a shared space street in the Netherlands

A courtesy crossing in Chester, England

The de Kaden shared space area in Drachten, Holland

Mobility How shared space prevents accidents See how the principles of Shared Space traffic engineering are making streets safer by ... more

Noordlaren Primary School uses an 'abacus fence', distinctive lighting, benches and paving ... / Credits: Ben Hamilton-Baillie

Mobility 'Riskier' streets reduce accidents Making roads seem more dangerous improves safety. ‘Shared Space’ traffic ... more

This image of the debris field in Low-Earth orbit (LEO) is an artist's impression based on actual ... / Credits: ESA

Mobility Space debris threatens satellites Man-made space junk poses a serious threat to all space vehicles. Allianz ... more

Allianz Genius Safety Prize

Blind Spot Information System

Cars line up in traffic

Lane-Departure Warning system by Ford

Car lights as seen on a highway

parking system maneuvers car into parking slot

Reduce Accidents by 20 Percent

Mobility How electronic wizardry improves road safety Ford is the first car manufacturer to install the most advanced electronic driver ... more

Car engines are shrinking as manufacturers squeeze more power for less fuel and emissions out of ... / Credits: Reuters

Mobility Small is beautiful as carmakers downsize Less is more with the next generation of 1.0-liter car engines as the auto ... more

The Audi A1 e-tron is the electric version of the original Audi A1 model.

Tesla’s Model X is a full-sized battery electric SUV.

According to BMW, the i3 model is an “uncompromisingly sustainable” vehicle designed for urban areas.

The Twizy is an electric city car, relatively cheap compared to other electric vehicles.

The Toyota Prius.

The Smart Fortwo ED is the battery electric version of the Smart micro car.

The Chevrolet Volt.

The Nissan Leaf.

The Tesla Roadster is a fully electric car that features zero emissions despite a top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h).

Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi takes a ride in the eight-wheeled electric car "Eliica."

People look at a Reva electric car in New Delhi.

An electric-powered e-jeepney drives past regular jeepneys, one of the Philippines' most recognizable icons, during its test run in Manila.

Mobility Modern electric cars From Tesla's seven-seated SUV Model X to Renaults city hopper Twizy, here are some of the ... more

Nissan Leaf electric cars are being charged before the start of an electric car rally in Tallinn / Credits: Reuters

Heavy fog rolls by early in the morning near the Dubai Marina. / Credits: Reuters

Mobility: Interview What is a Green City? We asked Peter Köferl from Allianz trend assessment and strategy department how ... more

Project Coral Reef, Haiti

Project “Anti-Smog” was set up in 2008 to fight Parisian air pollution

The Dragonfly building in New York City would be a completely self-sustaining ecosystem

The Landscript concept tries to remodel a 220-hectare industrial area on the outskirts of Geneva in Switzerland

The Lilypad Floating City is a concept for a completely self-sufficient, floating city intended to provide shelter for potential climate refugees

This artificial harbour aims at renaturalizing the urban landscape and increasing real estate availability

Physalia is a concept for an amphibious garden in a ship’s body that would navigate around European rivers

Mobility Green cities: Urban utopias Belgian architect Vincent Callebaut has come up with some futuristic concepts of what the ... more

A boy places basketball as tourists relax in chairs on Broadway in New York's Times Square, ... / Credits: Reuters

Mobility New Urbanism: Cities for people not cars New Urbanism argues that our current concept of a city - as segregated, ... more

Man and car on the verge of a new relationship: intelligent driver assisstance systems could help ... / Credits: Shutterstock

Mobility Smart cars could save lives Over one million people die in traffic accidents every year. Fortunately the ... more

Old residential buildings are demolished in Shanghai, March 2013. China aims to spend $6 trillion on infrastructure as a projected 400 million people become urban residents over the next decade. Ironically, the country is systematically razing cheap housing stock for the very people expected to fuel the urban migration - without providing sufficient replacement units. The cleared land is then sold to developers who often build expensive apartment buildings.

Passengers get on a train heading to Basra, at a train station in Baghdad, May 2013. Iraq's infrastructure is dilapidated after decades of war, sanctions and economic decline. In a country where piles of rubble and incomplete buildings are commonplace, almost every sector needs investment, including electricity and the sewage system. However, the country is laying plans to rebuild its Ottoman Empire-era railways and become a transit hub for goods from Asia to the Middle East.

Workers construct Bangkok's Mass Transit System (BTS) skytrain infrastructure in August 2012. In April, a fund controlled by the BTS Group, the rail system’s operator, raised $2.13 billion in the largest initial public offering ever by a Thai company.
Governments across Southeast Asia are expanding public works as a way to sustain growth, and rely heavily on foreign investment. The Thai government incentivizes this via 10-year tax breaks to investments by individuals in infrastructure funds.

Construction work is seen at a field of solar panels in southern England, May 2013. Renewable energy production and infrastructure are gaining investor appeal as they become less dependent on government support in more European markets. Allianz, Europe's biggest insurer, has been investing billions of euros of policyholder funds in renewable energy, with executives citing the viability of long-term cash flows.

Students return home from school along Haiti's National Road No. 7 in January 2013. The 56-mile road project was intended to connect the port city of Les Cayes with Jeremie, a city in one of Haiti's most neglected regions, and required the resurfacing of a pot-holed road that passes between narrow mountain ranges and fords a flood-prone river. The unfinished road has become a symbol of how efforts to improve Haiti's infrastructure have run up against the country's land laws.

Vehicles drive past the construction site for a new highway in Jakarta’s business district in March 2013. Indonesia is seeking to build $9 billion worth of water, road, air and seaport projects, but has repeatedly run into problems securing investors; the Financial Times recently cited poor planning, land acquisition problems and lack of coordination as hampering the country’s ambitious infrastructure development plans.

A Tokyo expressway in February 2013. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe aims to spend $100 billion on infrastructure in the next 15 months to help the economy. But Japan already has 1.2 million km of roads, 250 bullet trains and 98 airports, leading critics to label new projects unnecessary. “We cannot simply continue to build roads and infrastructure the way we used to at a time when the population is aging and shrinking," says Takayoshi Igarashi, public policy professor at Hosei University.

A man cycles past a campaign poster for Kenya's Prime Minister and presidential candidate Raila Odinga. Kenya’s LAPSETT project (Lamu Port and Lamu Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor) was intended to construct a new port, a railway line, a new two-lane highway network, a crude oil pipeline, an oil refinery, and three resort cities. The project has been estimated at $23bn, and has been fraught with problems, including backlash from local communities over environmental and social concerns.

A surveyor walks in the London sewer in March 2013. After heavy rainfall, raw sewage gushes into the River Thames from a network of dank sewers beneath the streets of London. A Victorian-era problem that has never been fixed, the tunnels underscore Britain's infrastructure backlog. The need for a new London sewer was identified as early as 1989, but privatized utility Thames Water lacked government funding and had more pressing priorities, like cleaner drinking water.

Metro trains undertake their first official safety trial run in Mumbai in May 2013. Mumbai’s first 11.4 km metro line is three years behind schedule, reportedly due to engineering difficulties, but will be operational up to the airport in September and fully operational by the end of December. The route, which currently takes 90 minutes by road, will be covered in just 20 minutes – providing badly needed relief to Mumbai commuters.

A man walks past building work at a slum in Rio de Janeiro in April 2013. Brazil is struggling to upgrade its roads, airports, public transport, power systems and facilties, and to build new venues for next year’s World Cup as well as the 2016 Olympics. Such a massive overhaul will require $100bn investment per year for the next five years, and numerous setbacks have observers worried that the country will not be prepared to manage the massive influx of visitors.

Mobility The world's most challenging infrastructure ... Around the world, governments and investors are pumping billions of dollars into ... more

A driverless vehicle runs at a testing area during a media presentation in Berlin in 2007 / Credits: Reuters

Mobility Driverless cars: Can computers make roads safer? No more drunk driving, no dozing off behind the steering wheel, no reckless ... more