Our vision

Innovations for mobility transformation: enabling possibilities together.

The Munich Cluster for the Future of Mobility in Metropolitan Regions (MCube) pursues the vision of establishing Munich as a pioneer for sustainable and transformative mobility innovations. Due to the unique geographic concentration of innovation actors in the mobility sector, MCube uses the area as a "learning region" to develop scalable solutions with model character for metropolitan regions in Germany and worldwide over the next nine years.

The long-term cluster has the potential to actively shape the mobility transformation beyond the region. Building on existing cross-technology, cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaborations, MCube unites key players from science, business and society to realize leap innovations with great economic impact and high solution potential for global challenges.

Our value-oriented guiding principles

Our mission

MCube pursues an open and mission-driven culture of innovation.Our statement “Innovations for mobility transformation: enabling possibilities together” may be regarded as an interplay of three missions:the quality of time, the quality of space and the quality of air.

Quality of time refers on the one hand to the efficiency of the transport system,with a view to infrastructure capacities and traffic flow. On the other hand, it refers to reliable and comfortable mobility between everyday locations.

Quality of space refers to the impact of mobility innovation on public space and regional open spaces. The aim is to create new diverse recreational and exercise spaces that are accessible to the entire population.

Quality of air refers to traffic-related environmental pollution. All MCube projects aim not only to reduce local air pollutants but also contribute to the global climate by saving CO₂ in addition to reducing local air pollutants.

Quality of time

Efficiency of the transport system:
• Infrastructure capacities and traffic flow, punctuality, usability of time, ...
• Reliable and comfortable accessibility of everyday locations
• Reduction of effort (time, costs, comfort) and delays in case of multi-inter-modality
• Improve regional location structure, accessibility of workplaces
• Reduction of trip lengths for selected trip purposes
• Increase of neighborhood-related bicycle and pedestrian traffic
• Increasing flexibility of mobility through individualization of public transport
• Acceleration of approval of tests & implementations
• Analysis and change of the political and social framework conditions to quality of time initiatives (e.g. awareness, dialogue, acceptance...)

Quality of space

Impact on public urban space and regional open space:
• Reduction of land consumption for transportation infrastructure
• Space-saving networking of services
• Increase of quality and duration of stay in the neighborhood
• Reduction of private car ownership
• Reduction of parking space requirements in public spaces
• Improve street space distribution
• Improvement of traffic safety and social security
• Reduction of psychological and physical stress caused by traffic
• Analysis and change of the political and social conditions to initiatives for the quality of space (e.g. awareness, dialogue, acceptance...)

Quality of air

Environmental impact of transport:
• CO2 reduction₂in everyday mobility, per vehicle-km, per capita, per region
• CO2 reduction₂as well as reduction of noise and local air pollutants in freight, delivery and service traffic
• Reduction of local noise and air pollution (e.g. NOx, PM, ...) in neighborhoods
• Reduction of noise, local air pollutant emissions per vehicle km (all means of transport)
• Reduction of overall vehicle emissions (LCA, "CradletoCradle")
• Conservation of rare resources in production, operation and disposal of means of transport
• Improvement of recycling and disposal measures for different means of transport
• Analysis and change of political and societal framework on air quality initiatives (e.g. awareness, dialogue, acceptance...)

Three fields of innovation

The three missions of the MCube cluster strategy are taken up and pursued in the form of concrete projects. Three fields of innovation play a central role here:

Electrify and Automate Transportation Systems

Electrification:

• Holistic charging infrastructure solutions
• Electrification of entire neighborhoods in Munich
• Electric cargo bikes
• Emission-free urban traffic with acoustic improvement
• Electrification of delivery traffic
• Creating trust/acceptance for electric mobility among the population
• Reduce charging times/use charging time optimally

Automation:

• Autonomous shuttles for more time-efficient individual transportation
• Automated last mile
• Automated parking
• Automate delivery traffic/logistics
• Mastering complex city center situations autonomously
• What are the holistic influences of automation on space/air/time?
• Infrastructure for automation of traffic (control center)
• Safety through autonomous driving

Develop and Integrate Mobility Options

Multimodality:

• Radical transformation through demand-centered combination of different means of transportation
• Innovations and experiments in pedestrian and bicycle traffic
• Mobility culture: understanding lifestyles, values and everyday practices → jointly developing and testing transformation scenarios
• Technical enablers: sharing, digital platforms, mobility as a service (MaaS)

Digitalization as a mega trend:

• Big Data and simulations in researching traffic flows
• Development of digital products and services (incl. sharing and platforms)
• Reducing the susceptibility of existing systems to failure without building new infrastructure
• Networking of data systems
• Interoperability of previously separate data systems and platforms
• Overcoming often fragmented data infrastructures and information and billing platforms of (e.g. municipal) mobility providers
• Pilot projects in start-ups (e.g. Flixbus, Fernride, EVUM, Twaice, Artisense, Lilium)
• Regulatory, economic and social framework conditions for new and integrated mobility options

Connect Locations and Design Mobility Spaces

Entwicklung von Standorten (Quartiere / Cluster):

• Mobility concepts (also for connecting networking locations among each other).
• Mobility offers/stations
• Regulation (e.g. parking space statutes)

Further development of evaluation methods:

• Spatial effects
• Accessibility improvements
• Comparison/shift between transport modes

Improved use of public space:

• „Transition Experiments“
• Toolkit for low-car spaces (alternative mobility options and activities, curbside management...).

Three fields of integration

Three strategic integration fields link the activities in the MCube innovation fields across the individual projects and thematic fields, connecting issues of overarching interest:

Challenges

Metropolitan regions play a key role in shaping the future of mobility. Not only is it predicted that a growing proportion of the world's population will live in cities in the future, but cities already account for a large proportion of global energy consumption and CO₂ emissions.

However, urban areas are also centers of business, science and innovation. Metropolitan regions are therefore increasingly expected to lead the way to a livable, economically stable and ecologically sustainable future with technical and social innovations.

In this context, metropolitan regions not only face a triple innovation pressure from technological disruptions, societal challenges and global competition. Innovative implementation strategies in the mobility sector raise complex social, legal and ethical issues and often suffer from a lack of scalability.

Therefore, new approaches are needed to develop technologies and transformation processes involving the population, to be tested courageously and to be specifically translated into products and services.In addition to established companies, startups, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and civil society play a central role here.

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Mobility needs everyone

Mobility innovation requires a holistic innovation process that brings together the results of science and the participation of local stakeholders from business, society and local authorities. MCube links nationally and internationally leading research institutions and corporations with an innovative SME sector, start-ups, and NGOs.