At the annual conference of the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV), Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) presented their plans for the world’s first autonomous shuttle fleet in public transport. The vehicles in autonomous Level 4 are to travel in Darmstadt and the Offenbach district from 2023 – completely integrated into regular public transport operations.
The DB technology company ioki, market leader for on-demand mobility in the DACH region and leading company for digital mobility in Europe, provides the intelligent soft-ware and thus the core of the autonomous on-demand transport service. A specially developed interface (API) enables the smooth integration of the software of the autonomous vehicles with the ioki on-demand platform. ioki is the European leader in connect-ing driver-based and autonomous fleets of different providers to its mobility platform: The Intel subsidiary Mobileye is to contribute the vehicle software for the project in the Rhine-Main region and is thus the third provider to be integrated into the ioki platform after Navya and Easy Mile. CleverShuttle, also a DB subsidiary, will realise the local operation together with the local partners Heag mobilo and kvgOF.
Michael Barillère-Scholz, CEO of ioki: « ioki and the Rhine-Main region are (once again) pioneers for on-demand mobility in Germany. Completely integrated into the public transport system, on-demand autonomous shuttles make a decisive contribution to cli-mate protection and a nationwide public transport system of the future. »
For passengers in the service areas, it means more flexible mobility with less traffic: they can continue to book the shuttles (whether with or without drivers) via the central RMV on-demand app. The flexible and digital service with the ioki software is already in use in the Offenbach district, in Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Taunusstein, Limburg and Hofheim. In the coming months, further service areas will follow in the districts of Groß-Gerau, Darm-stadt-Dieburg and Hanau. Up to 1.8 million people in the region will benefit from the service.
The joint press release of VDV, RMV and Deutsche Bahn can be found here. The public transport performance cost report by Roland Berger can be found here (on-demand coverage gap on page 33f.). The VDV industry survey On-Demand 2022 is linked here.
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About ioki: Pioneer for autonomous driving in public transport
The DB subsidiary ioki has established itself as a pioneer in the field of autonomous driving and has set milestones for the German market – from test operations on closed terrain to the first autonomous vehicle in road-bound public transport and the first linking of an on-demand booking system with autonomously driving vehicles. Together with strong partners, we continue to work on bringing autonomous public transport onto the road. For a networked, digital and above all modern public transport system – in Germany and in Europe
ioki is the leading platform provider for driver-based and autonomous on-demand solutions in Europe with 70 on-demand transports and 80 mobility analyses in seven European countries. Since 2017, companies, cities and municipalities have relied on the expertise of ioki to optimise and digitalise transport according to their individual needs. As a technology partner, ioki develops systems that are fully integrated into the existing pub-lic transport system, detailed mobility analyses for a data-based and demand-oriented offer as well as user-friendly platforms. More than 120 employees from over 20 nations work from the headquarters in Frankfurt to connect people and help shape the future of public transport.
