On the 24th of September 2021, Prof. Winner conducted his last lecture titled “How will autonomous driving escape the approval trap?” in the large lecture hall of the Hörsaal- und Medienzentrums (HMZ), which was also available for the audience connected via video conference.

On this occasion, long-term project partners, association and university colleagues, as well as the dean of the mechanical engineering department Prof. Dreizler gave their warm greetings and wishes to Prof. Winner in his future endeavour. The colleagues of the department presented their department head with the icon of the department as a wall decoration as well as with a memento, the illuminated logo of FZD. The logo was redeveloped after the take-over from Prof. Breuer as head of the department and has since then represented the FZD brand under the direction of Prof. Winner.

Furthermore, we had also bid farewell to our retiring lecturer Prof. Dr. Uwe Ernstberger, who supplemented the range of offered lectures with the lecture “Product Development and Design in Automotive Industry” since 2010. His works and efforts were also recognised and heartily appreciated at the occasion.

This was then followed by the introduction of Prof. Winner's successor, Dr.-Ing. Steven Peters, who addressed the audience and gave an outlook on future research directions. After the speeches and the lecture, the event concluded with an outdoor event in front of the foyer of the HMZ.

The Institute of Automotive Engineering (FZD) thanks all the guests, speakers and participants for their contributions to this all-round successful event.