"Widespread use"

German cities rely on self-driving buses

The city of Hamburg already tested autonomous minibuses in summer 2019.

(Bild: APA Pool/APA/dpa/Christian Charisius)

Around 10,000 self-driving buses could be on the road in Hamburg by 2030. And other German cities are also increasingly relying on autonomous vehicles. The German Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) therefore expects an increase in autonomous driving in the near future. 

"Self-driving robo-buses will be on the road and transporting passengers in the first cities in Germany by 2026 or 2027 at the latest," KBA President Richard Damm told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung newspaper. Hamburg, for example, could manage to have around 10,000 shuttle buses on the roads by 2030.

"Widespread use of self-driving buses and trucks"
"It is to be expected that in five to ten years there will be widespread use of self-driving buses and trucks that operate entirely without drivers," emphasized Damm. In the USA, many logistics companies have long been relying on autonomous trucks for long distances and are looking for partners for this.

Damm called on transport companies not to miss out on the robo-bus train: "The purchase may be expensive, but the benefits, the flexibility gained, are huge." Not all public transport companies are yet sufficiently aware of this, but should pay more attention to these possibilities.

Need for legal adjustments
The authority president appealed to politicians to quickly develop the strategy for autonomous driving. "If there is no driver on board, but the computer is in control, there is no longer any need for driving and rest periods, for example, nor is there any obligation to monitor them," said the KBA President. Legal adjustments are required. This would also create incentives for investment, which could boost the ramp-up.