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The ITS World Congress opened today in Hamburg. Through until Friday (15 October) in hall 5, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) and MOIA are showing possible new uses being created through the development of self-driving vehicles. Industry visitors will take their place on comfortable MOIA seats in a model of the ID.BUZZ AD¹ in a standard shuttle configuration and experience on the screen how it is possible to organise autonomous transport of people and goods. “We see ourselves as the cities’ partners and want with these mobility services to make an important contribution to improving the transport offering and road safety”, explained VWCV Management Board Member Michael Obrowski to Hamburg Mayor Peter Tschentscher as they looked around the stand this afternoon. It is in his city that from 2025 self-driving shuttles from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and MOIA will go into use for the first time anywhere in the world. Many major cities in Europe and the USA are then set to follow.

The Hamburg ITS is precisely the right stage for mobility solutions geared to an international market. The World Congress sees itself as the most important international industry event in the area of intelligent transport systems and services. It’s an event where specialists come together from the IT, mobility and logistics sectors, as well as from politics and trade associations. The main themes include automated, cooperative and connected mobility: i.e, the transition from driver to autonomous driving. In addition to the congress for the industry delegates in the re-opened Congress Center Hamburg (CCH), there is also a free-of-charge public day on Thursday, 14 October. In the halls at the trade fair and in selected public spaces a high-calibre on-stage programme is being provided for the visitors, hosted by regional TV presenter Yared Dibaba. People can register to attend the public day online at www.itsweltkongress.hamburg

For the Volkswagen Group autonomous driving is a key technology that makes new mobility solutions possible and increases road safety. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, MOIA and US technology company ARGO AI, which developed the self-driving system, are already trialling their autonomous ride-pooling system in a pilot project in Hamburg. Using an interactive simulation, MOIA is showing on its stand in hall 5 the contribution that autonomous ride-pooling in large fleets can make in support of the switch to alternative forms of mobility. MOIA is currently on the road with several hundred vehicles. If the fleet is increased to 1,000 or more, the full advantages of ride-pooling come to the fore. The mobility offering for users increases, individual transport goes down, local public transport benefits”, says MOIA CEO Robert Henrich.  

Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and MOIA see themselves as the cities’ partners. With its standard ride-pooling service, MOIA is supplementing local public transport in Hamburg. During the lockdown, MOIA additionally implemented a night service for the city authority, transporting key workers to their places of work in the period from midnight to 6 a.m.

¹ ID. BUZZ AD – The vehicle will not be offered for sale.