The IAA is back
There you go, after the world - consisting of a couple of sleeve-raisers in Frankfurt - got upset last January about losing the most important and only event that took place in the small town in southern Hesse with a local airfield, calm has returned and from now on changing venues will be played, similar to the Love Parade after the end of the Berlin era ... so maybe this year and next year before the curtain finally falls.
Yet the world situation since last year, when all problems were put on hold - one would wish: literally, but the Siberian permafrost continues to dissolve into carbon dioxide - has nothing at all to do with it. The choice, however, was not Hamburg or Berlin, as desired, but a tranquil monastic town situated on a high plateau off the Bavarian Alps. Our editors have no verified information as to whether a former propeller and aircraft parts manufacturer allegedly based there played a role in the decision.
In any case, the exhibitors, press, trade visitors and selected public can look forward to sensational new discoveries that no one expected. Above all, the organiser has not jumped on the bandwagon, like the sports federations (Fifa, WTA/ATP, IOC), to call its events this year EURO 2020, US Open 2020 or Tokyo 2020 because it was cancelled last year.
The IAA 2021 in Munich
The only thing known about the reason for last year's cancellation is that there was not enough preparation time for the slow Bavarians. After all, Frankfurt was still trying to keep the event in their little town until January 2020 for some inexplicable reason. To actually be able to hold it, they should have commissioned China to host it, who are also responsible for the Oktoberfest.
There are still numerous restrictions this year: All visitors need 3G proof, i.e. a mobile phone with push buttons, a two-line monochrome display and maximum SMS/D-network reception, without internet function or battery life over 24 hours.
Of course, these requirements for not taking personal responsibility only apply to the visitors, not to the 12,000 or so people who are directly responsible for the construction or the almost 35,000 suppliers of logistics and infrastructure. This principle is well known and is described by the newly created terms such as work quarantine, which has given us so much pleasure for over a year and makes it clear how important comprehensible rules are in every area of life.
But more importantly: what is there to see at the IAA?
Less than 135 years after the first Benz motor car, most vehicles now have an area called the passenger compartment, which is protected against penetrating splash water from below as well as against wetness from above and in front (misleadingly called the windshield). The devices are usually operated with hands and feet, so they are still by no means self-moving (automotive), as their name suggests.
Therefore, the exhibitors, most of whom are also manufacturers, concentrate on the comfort of being in their vehicles. Already offered in series are essential functions such as voice control for the smarthome, to be told the weather while driving, because according to the manufacturers you can't see it yourself (because of the windshield, you remember - looking to the side is counterproductive), or to switch on the light in the living room before you arrive.
Electromobility is further down the list, because why should we suddenly start questioning fossil fuels, further develop graphene as energy storage or intelligent safety systems before the coal phase-out, when more people die in road traffic than are attributed to the consequences of a catalysing viral infection, for example?