[FutureBlog] First fully autonomous vehicle on German roads: Deutsche Bahn tests electric bus

The time has come: the future of autonomous driving has begun. When does Deutsche Bahn compete with CarSharing and Taxi nationwide?

Since yesterday, the first completely autonomous vehicle has been available on the public roads of Germany. In a small town called Bad Birnbach, the autonomous Deutsche Bahn bus will be tested on a 700-metre test track before it will also be used in other cities such as Hamburg from 2018 onwards.
The vehicle was designed and built by a French company called EasyMile and has been tested in over 60 locations worldwide since 2015.

In Bad Birnbach, the small autonomous car still drives through the streets at a speed of 15 kilometres per hour and is also accompanied by an employee of Deutsche Bahn who could intervene in the journey at any time. However, both are measures that serve to secure the test, as the vehicle can travel completely autonomously on the previously surveyed route at speeds of up to 40 km/h.

The day yesterday was without doubt the milestone that will change our roads in the future. If in a few years' time the technology will be tested and further developed - why shouldn't there be small units that pick up passengers from every place and bring them to their destination like a mixture of car sharing and taxi?

Such vehicles would be much safer than human-controlled cars today, networked and coordinated with each other, and can drive through the cities like a string of pearls. Such developments would even have an impact on the urban development of the future

All information about the first public self-propelled vehicle can be found on the  Deutschen Bahn website.

Illustration: Deutsche Bahn AG / Uwe Miethe