A duel in the Audi A8: HERE navigation vs. taxi driver

Franz has covered more than 140,000 kilometers with his taxi in the space of just one-and-a-half years. Anyone who spends that much time in a vehicle develops a special relationship with it. Which is why his taxi also has a name: “Schickeria-Schleuder”.

And Franz has already been through a lot with her: “One night, I was waiting in front of the Hofbräuhaus when suddenly this drunk guy came staggering up to my taxi. He climbs in, and it wasn’t until I took a second look that I realized it was Bruce Willis. I drove him to his hotel, which was only 500 meters down the street. But he was probably too disoriented, or too drunk.”

In his job, Franz can’t allow himself to be disoriented. To earn his taxi license, he learnt the vast majority of Munich’s streets by heart. He knows every square, every park and every promenade. He’s a master at dodging traffic jams. His gut feel and his experience are his best navigation system. When asked how he fancies his chances in a race against the world’s most state-of-the-art navigation system, he nods confidently and says: “I know what I know. Challenge accepted.”

Around 24 hours later at Audi’s Technical Development complex in Ingolstadt: Guido Müller is filled with anticipation. Today, he’s going to drive against taxi legend Franz Daumer in a race from the Schlossmuseum in Ismaning to the Residenztheater in downtown Munich. Guido is Project Leader for the HERE navigation system in the Audi A8.

There’s only one question on his mind today: Who is faster? Taxi driver Franz with his experience or the navigation system Guido and his colleagues have been working on for the past four years.

The further development of autonomous driving is one of the reasons for Audi acquiring HERE in 2015 from Nokia, together with other German auto-makers. “What we see in HERE is far more than purely a guidance experience to get from A to B,” he says. “HERE’s maps are extremely accurate down to the last ten centimeters. We’ll need this kind of precision later when Audi wants to put autonomous driving into series production.”

The accurate map material is one of HERE’s great strengths. Furthermore, the new system offers precise traffic information from geodata service, TomTom, and comprehensive search functionality from Google. “Each service has its own strengths. We’re bringing them together in a single system to offer the customer the best outcome,” says Guido as he exits the A9.

Guido’s chattiness evident on the way here evaporates. Deep in concentration, he steers the Audi A8 through the heavy traffic. The HERE navigation guides him deftly through the busy roads.

Franz is driving right in front of us. He had a better start, and we drive behind him for a while along Oberföhringerstraße. As we leave Oberföhring, Franz suddenly takes a right turn. The HERE navigation tells us to drive on. Is Franz perhaps aware of a traffic jam unknown to the navigation system? Guido doesn’t let it bother him and sticks to his course.

But the succession of red lights keeps slowing us down. Seconds become eternities. Maybe Franz is intentionally avoiding this flood of stoplights and is slinking along back roads. Is the Schickeria-Schleuder going to beat us?

Guido picks up the tempo after every red light. But the traffic is getting heavier and sometimes we come to a complete standstill. Guido’s gas foot is getting nervous. The finish line is still around 1.5 kilometers away. As we head along Maximilianstraße towards our destination, Guido uses a gap in the traffic to make up some time. We arrive at the finish line after around 15 kilometers.