In Hamburg, autonomous cars have already arrived on the streets, albeit only to a limited extent. The Volkswagen subsidiary Moia is sending a small fleet of self-driving shuttles onto the streets in several districts northeast of the Alster – with safety drivers on board because the technology has so far reached its limits. Now the Hanseatic city is opening up for another project, this time with the Freenow company. The taxi broker headquartered in Hamburg wants to use autonomous taxis in selected neighborhoods and has concluded an agreement with the Senate about this. “A milestone, not just for Hamburg, but for all of Germany,” says Freenow boss Thomas Zimmermann in an interview with the F.A.Z. Hamburg’s Transport Senator Anjes Tjarks (Greens) says that the project will help to further expand the city’s pioneering role. Autonomous taxis are one of the biggest future topics in the automotive industry. Internationally, technology is making rapid progress. In Germany and Europe, however, progress is slow. Manufacturers such as Mercedes and BMW focus primarily on assistance systems for private customers, with fully autonomous fleets for call services and shared mobility in cities coming second for them. The Volkswagen Group had to cope with a few setbacks with its project before it is now slowly moving towards market readiness.Freenow wants to develop in Hamburg’s outskirtsFreenow, formerly a company of BMW and Mercedes, now a subsidiary of the American ride-hailing company Lyft, now wants to specifically develop outlying areas in Hamburg. Company boss Zimmermann and Senator Tjarks announced in an interview that the plan is specifically to launch the offer in the areas of Altona-West, Hamburg-Nord and Bergedorf in the east. The project is intended to be closely linked to local public transport and to use a rule from the Passenger Transport Act that already allows taxi companies to travel to poorly connected areas with special low fares. Anyone who lives in the north of Hamburg and wants to travel the “last mile” from the S-Bahn by taxi should only have to pay a few euros. The tariff model is scheduled to start this year with conventional taxis and drivers, and at the same time vehicles equipped with sensors and cameras will begin mapping the area for the robotaxis. From next year onwards, passengers should be able to travel without a driver. Freenow boss Zimmermann speaks of “several hundred” autonomous vehicles that are to be integrated into the fleet in the future and will later also operate in other parts of the city. Second project starts in London He sees the pact with Hamburg as the first model of its kind in Germany, in which “a city and a private company jointly define a strategic framework for the introduction of Level 4 vehicles in taxi traffic and create clear rules for their integration.” “Level 4” refers to a high level of automation where vehicles do not require a driver. Volkswagen is also working on this with Moia, although not as a call taxi for individual customers, but as a shuttle in which several passengers share a route. For Lyft, the owner of Freenow, Hamburg is one of two large projects in Europe. A parallel project is underway in London, for which the Americans have already named a technology partner: their British robotaxis will run on technology from the Chinese company Baidu, which has a similar position in China as Google in the United States. In Hamburg, Freenow has so far kept a low profile about the choice of technology – also because the decision is politically explosive. Chinese systems are considered efficient, but are viewed critically – data protection and IT security are considered to be a problem. More on the topic Technicians in Norway recently found a mechanism in Chinese electric buses that they classified as a “kill switch”, i.e. a system with which vehicles can be switched off remotely. Freenow boss Zimmermann says they will work on selecting a technology partner in the coming months. Transport Senator Tjarks is completely reserved and says that the federal government must answer any questions on the subject. Because it’s about a topic whose spectrum “clearly goes beyond a Hamburg transport authority.” Future mobility in cities concerns companies all over the world. It should become cleaner, more efficient and cheaper. This creates many new business opportunities. Freenow originally started out in Hamburg under the name “My Taxi” – customers call a taxi using an app on their smartphone, and the company then arranges the booking to connected taxi centers or directly to drivers with whom Freenow has a contract. Lyft, on the other hand, has its origins in America and follows a business model that is comparable to its well-known competitor Uber. With the takeover of Freenow last year, the Americans gained access to the taxi market across Europe.
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