Hamburg plans autonomous vehicles for public transport

Autonomous vehicles in local public transport: The Hanseatic city of Hamburg is to become a metropolitan model region for mobility. As part of this, traffic is to be digitized, while autonomous cabs and suburban trains are to be used in local public transport. There are to be up to 10,000 of these models by 2030.

Hamburg: Autonomous vehicles in public transport in planning

The Hanseatic city of Hamburg is already on its way to becoming Germany’s most modern city anyway. In a pilot project, it has recently become possible to change residences online, and the north is home to the world’s first digital S-Bahn and Levante, a new supercomputer for climate research.

Now, however, the Hanseatic city is also to become a metropolitan model region for mobility, according to the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV). “Driverless on-demand mobility services in public transport, (real-time) data-based services for passenger and freight transport, and platforms integrated information, booking and distribution systems are an important step in this direction,” reads the corresponding declaration of intent.

In the course of this, traffic is to be digitized. Self-driving, autonomous cars and cabs as well as driverless commuter trains are to drive digitization forward, among other things. By 2030, a mobility system is thus to be built that will come along with up to 10,000 autonomous vehicles.

“We are relying on digitization to provide the people of the city and the metropolitan region with a modern, sustainable and efficient mobility service. It is very important to me: digitalization should make life and, in this case, people’s mobility easier and more convenient,” says Hamburg’s transport senator Dr. Anjes Tjarks in the press release.

“This then has a very concrete effect in future-oriented projects such as that of autonomous driving, with which we can significantly increase the fleet of on-demand vehicles and the digital rail S-Bahn – which will allow us to significantly improve the frequency and offer in Hamburg’s rapid transit network, even with the existing infrastructure,” continued Dr. Tjarks.

Building a digital mobility system

The aim of the project Metropol Model Region Mobility is to build a completely new, digitized and networked urban mobility system. At the same time, the aim is to continuously exchange information with other measures and thus accelerate and accompany the corresponding projects. The results should be easily transferable to other regions.

Examples of autonomous vehicles include models from manufacturers such as MOIA or oki, which are intended to create a new digital “on-demand transport service” that could also be adapted for rural areas.

The Hamburg S-Bahn is also to be able to travel fully autonomously in the future with the ETCS standard and achieve an even denser frequency. The next step is to initiate and update a project catalog for implementation. The status, progress and results of the project will be published and made available to all interested parties.