The Germans are famous for building cars and inventing buzzwords. One example of the latter is the German term ‘Digitalisierung’ which basically means ‘digitizing’, ‘digitization’ or ’ ‘digitalization’. Now, the funny thing is Digitalisierung has been really popular since around 2016 although the process of converting information into digital formats already started in the 1950s.
Although you can hear and read the buzzword Digitalisierung in German media every single day now, Germany is still lagging way behind when it comes to implementing digital and other technologies. Here is an example:
When you want to use the tram in a German city in many cases the only way of paying for your ticket is by inserting coins into a slot machine. You can’t pay via credit or debit card and the machine doesn’t even accept banknotes or 2 Euro coins. I find this really astonishing. It’s a bit like travelling back in time
Also, access to the internet in Germany is extremely expensive and LTE coverage is very bad. Unfortunately, the list of areas where Germany is lagging behind is long and it’s growing. Nobody knows when 5G finally will finally be launched in Germany and even when it becomes available coverage will likely even worse than the current 4G network.
However, without a reliable 5G network most IoT applications especially autonomous driving will be impossible.