ITS mobility fair: How Hamburg wants to revolutionize local transport

The small robot bus clearly reaches its limits when things get complicated in traffic.

Sometimes he stops unnecessarily abruptly because he suspects a danger where there is none.

Then it trundles on at the top speed of 25 kilometers per hour - only to suddenly stop and let all other vehicles pass before it finally arrives safely at its destination.

The Hamburger Hochbahn calls the project in Hafencity HEAT, an abbreviation for "Hamburg Electric Autonomous Transportation".

Using the small, red and black prototype, it is intended to explore the possibilities of autonomously driving minibuses in city traffic.

Christian Müßgens

Business correspondent in Hamburg.

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The bus, a development by the engineering service provider IAV, Hochbahn and other partners, has been circulating in the area between the Speicherstadt, Elbphilharmonie and Überseequartier for several months. Now it is particularly in the focus, because HEAT is one of 42 anchor projects of the ITS World Congress, a trade fair for intelligent transport systems, which is meeting this week in the Hanseatic city. Around 13,000 visitors are expected, and the Green Transport Senator Anjes Tjarks promises that the people of Hamburg will benefit permanently from the projects presented. The aim is to become the “digital model city for smart mobility of the future”.

The fair wants to cover the entire transport sector, including goods logistics, which is obvious because of the location of Hamburg with its port and the many companies located there.

Local public transport is, however, a focus with important showcase projects.

Deutsche Bahn and Siemens are sending a driverless S-Bahn on tour on the S21 route in east Hamburg on the occasion of the trade fair, a world premiere with its special technology.

The Hamburger Verkehrsverbund HVV presents an app that automatically calculates journeys, which should make the classic ticket superfluous.

Autonomous group taxis from private providers, a closer connection between bus, train, city bike and rental car: all of this should relieve inner-city traffic.

Goals that sound utopian

This is an important topic for Germany's second largest city with almost 1.9 million inhabitants. Because the road network is overloaded in many places, especially at peak times when traffic axes such as Stresemannstraße or Sievekingsallee sink into traffic jams. Many Hamburgers therefore roll their eyes when Mayor Peter Tschentscher (SPD) proclaims, as now at the start of the ITS Congress, that they are a city that is “actively promoting” the mobility transition.

Little of this can still be seen in everyday life. However, things should move forward quickly within the next few years. Hamburg wants to increase the proportion of journeys made by public transport, shuttle services from private providers such as Moia, by bike or on foot from 64 percent by 2030 to 80 percent. The SPD and the co-ruling Greens see themselves as one of the pioneering cities in Germany.

A lot of money goes into the railways.

At the end of this year, the ground-breaking ceremony will take place for the construction of underground line 5, a new traffic artery across the city.

The first construction phase between Bramfeld and City Nord alone is likely to cost around 1.8 billion euros.

The Hamburg S-Bahn, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, is also working hard.

It wants to gradually expand the technology of autonomous trains, which has been tried and tested in the east of the city, to the entire S-Bahn network.

All of this should also contribute to Hamburg-Takt, a project that should enable every citizen to reach a means of transport within five minutes that picks them up at a faster rate.

The federal government is funding the project with 30 million euros.

Private providers should also help

Not only public companies, but also private providers should play a role. For example Moia, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. For several years now, the company has been traveling in Hamburg with striking, gold-black painted shared taxis, which from 2025 will also be able to cruise the streets autonomously, i.e. without a driver. As the number of vehicles increases, the whole thing becomes more and more interesting, says Managing Director Robert Henrich: “Moia is currently on the road with several hundred vehicles. If the fleet is increased to 1000 or more shuttles, ride pooling really comes into its own. ”The term ride pooling outlines Moia's special business model, in which passengers call a shared taxi via an app. An algorithm in the background then calculates the best way toto get all passengers to their destinations.

In addition to the VW company Moia, other companies are also in the business or at least with similar models. For example, the Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH) offers a call service for shuttles with the project "IOKI Hamburg", which are intended to close the gaps in the transport networks in the districts of Osdorf and Lurup. Here, too, there is a lot of software behind it, as the abbreviation IOKI shows, a combination of the words “input”, “output” and “artificial intelligence”. The special thing is that the vehicles run under a bus license and are integrated into the existing local public transport. That could happen sooner or later with the little robot bus from the HEAT project in HafenCity - if it proves its worth. So far, the duration of the project is limited to October.