Mobility Technology Center in Munich established

All systems are go for the Mobility Technology Center (MTC): Today in Munich, the partnership between ERGO, Munich Re, in-tech, and MaLiBu – the consultancy firm owned by Professor Markus Lienkamp, Chair of Automotive Technology at the Technical University of Munich – was given the green light. The MTC will provide services for the development of innovative automotive insurance products and risk management solutions, placing a focus on electromobility, automated and autonomous driving, new mobility concepts, and digital and integrated services. Clients from automotive, mobility and insurance companies in Germany and abroad will be able to take advantage of the MTC’s offerings.

All systems are go for the Mobility Technology Center (MTC): today in Munich, the partnership between ERGO, Munich Re, in-tech, and MaLiBu – the consultancy firm owned by Professor Markus Lienkamp, Chair of Automotive Technology at the Technical University of Munich – was given the green light. The MTC will provide services for the development of innovative automotive insurance products and risk management solutions, placing a focus on electromobility, automated and autonomous driving, new mobility concepts, and digital and integrated services. Clients from automotive, mobility and insurance companies in Germany and abroad will be able to take advantage of the MTC’s offerings.

“The future of mobility is electric and autonomous, and one where digital and situational products are set to prevail. That also has direct implications for insurers and their services,” explains Karsten Crede, Board member of ERGO Digital Ventures AG with responsibility for ERGO Mobility Solutions, the insurer’s automotive and mobility subsidiary. “Advanced in-vehicle sensor technology and augmented computing capacity enable the dynamic and continuous assessment of the risks associated with modern cars, and enhance existing methods such as crash tests. The vast array of modern vehicle technology, such as sensor systems, functions on demand and over-the-air updates, along with flexible ownership or usage concepts, are opening up new options for insurers, but also forcing them to act – to develop smart insurance solutions suitable for intelligent cars.”

“MTC combines expertise from the automotive and insurance industries with findings from applied research to come up with solutions specially tailored to tomorrow’s mobility,” explains Christian Wagner, CEO and co-founder of in-tech, one of the largest service providers in the German automotive industry. “Autonomous driving in particular calls for new business models and insurance solutions, which we’ll be able to design thanks to the infrastructure available at the MTC.”

From benchmark analyses for high-voltage batteries to advanced risk assessments for assistance systems

Insurance solutions and services for the new age of mobility will be created in the MTC on behalf of insurers, carmakers and mobility service providers. The primary focus will be on technology-based and data-based risk analyses and assessments, which serve as the starting point for developing the requisite insurance products.

In the case of high-voltage batteries, for instance, the MTC can perform a standardised comparison of all functionalities and develop models for analysing and predicting the ageing of in-vehicle battery cells under real operating conditions. This, in turn, enables providers of performance-guarantee insurance to offer insurance solutions for such batteries.

Another service the MTC will offer for car manufacturers and insurers is an analysis of the safety and effectiveness of driver-assistance systems, especially in relevant accident scenarios. Here, the idea is to provide partners with a dynamic assessment of the associated risks with a view to incentivising their customers to purchase and use these assistance systems.

Integration of digital on-demand insurance covers into the vehicle platform and development of risk management concepts for mobility service providers will also play an important role.

“The experts at the MTC have access to the latest findings from science and research and to unparalleled resources and equipment, including test benches, battery testing facilities, data loggers and driving simulators, which can be used, for instance, to test the boundaries of high-voltage batteries and assistance systems,” explains Professor Markus Lienkamp, CEO and founder of MaLiBu Vehicle Concept Engineering and Chair of Automotive Technology at the Technical University of Munich. “We see huge potential in designing innovative insurance solutions based on dynamic developments in automotive technology,” he says.

According to Karsten Crede, setting up the MTC as an independent spin-off “puts us in an excellent position to build greater trust in new technology and business models at the interface of the mobility industry and insurance. In this way, the MTC will help pave the way towards a safe and sustainable future for mobility.”

Subject to approval by the relevant supervisory authorities, the MTC is scheduled to start business operations in June 2022.