Technology – Siemens CEO calls for “huge” redistribution of technical change costs

Roland Bosch, the new president of Siemens Photo: Agence France-Presse

In light of the technological change, Siemens president Roland Bosch called for a “massive” redistribution of costs. “It can’t be that the energy transition mainly affects low-income people,” he told the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

In light of the technological change, Siemens president Roland Bosch called for a “massive” redistribution of costs. “The energy transition cannot be a burden for mainly low-income people,” he said in an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung (New Year’s Eve edition). “Politicians must respond.” Bosch predicted major technological advances in this decade. But these “cost a lot of money”.

The vision of the CEO of Siemens Holdings includes, for example, the complete digitization of management. “In 2030 we no longer have to go to an office to issue ID cards, and the administration is digital,” he said. Rail traffic will have a fifth largest capacity in 2030. However, trains will no longer be delayed – “because we have advanced digitization and we know what happens on trains before they break.”

The digitization of production should ensure this. Most products will soon have a so-called “digital twin” that gets updated over and over so that any error can be identified and corrected away from the product. As a result, even disaster planning like BER’s capital airport should be a thing of the past.

The Siemens president also relies on technological solutions in the fight against climate change. Each developer will be able to see the CO2 footprint on their screen and receive a suggestion on how to reduce it. “We will have fully digital networks that use memory in the car and in buildings in a way that always saves enough electricity, even though we use more and more of it.” Coal-fired power plants had been “largely” closed.

There will also be more and more factories that have no lights because they operate without human workers. When asked if advanced digitization at Siemens won’t cost many jobs, Bosch told SZ: “Frankly, I don’t think we’ll have fewer employees in 2030 than today.” The problem wouldn’t be that Siemens would have to cut jobs – “but in an aging society we can still get the employees we need.”

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