End for Bad Birnbach's autonomous buses: Stop financial problems!

End for Bad Birnbach's autonomous buses: Stop financial problems!

Kelheim, Deutschland - In 2017, the first autonomous minibus was introduced in Bad Birnbach as part of the “Heal” project. DB boss Richard Lutz visited the project in his introduction. From 2022, three autonomous minibuses drove through Bad Birnbach without a driver. The last trips took place on New Year's Eve 2024; The project was discontinued due to lack of money. The vehicle manufacturer Easymile withdraws from the project and will in future focus on traffic on flight and ship ports.

Similar projects in other Bavarian cities such as Hof, Kelheim, Kronach, Rehau and Bad Steben were also started, but they too had to be discontinued due to the lack of financing. In Kelheim, the project was funded with 10.9 million euros; There was also high financial support in Bad Birnbach. From mid -2023, the municipalities had to bear the costs themselves, which became problematic due to the clip. The Association of German Transport Companies lists 45 projects in Germany, but most are either set or planned.

Details about the project in Bad Birnbach

So far, no autonomous bus in Bavaria has reached the "Level 4" stage; All test drives required an operator that can intervene in an emergency. In October 2019, the autonomous line 7015 was put into operation, which connects the train station with the town center of Bad Birnbach. Two other autonomous shuttles have been in use since spring 2022. The aim of the new shuttles is to explore the needs -based use of autonomous vehicles, e.g. for trips to medical facilities. The research project on this topic is called Heal (highly automatic-societal and demand-oriented-rural).

The autonomous buses run Monday to Sunday between 8:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and trips are free of charge. Bookings can be made from where · you · Will, and there are 20 stops that connect different facilities in Bad Birnbach. Easymile continued to emphasize the commitment to innovation in the field of autonomous driving in September 2024, although the company is getting out of the project in Bad Birnbach. In Bad Birnbach, the line network, which was built for the autonomous buses, continues with normal buses, as the Merkur reported DB Regio Bus Bayern provided more details.

-transmitted by West-Ost-Medien