Autonomous driving

The German Ministry of Transport is playing a central role in the development of autonomous driving in order to make it both sustainable and safe. Therefore, we are supporting several projects with general interests and benefits. In the Karlsruhe–Bruchsal–Heilbronn region in Baden-Württemberg, Germanyʼs only test field for autonomous driving, which opened in May 2018, enjoys the support of the state government. In addition, as part of the DIAMANT project, a dialog has been maintained since 2018 between users, operators and manufacturers of autonomous vehicles for local public transport. The testing of a fully automated shuttle bus (level 4) with temporary passenger transport is to take place on a bus line in Ludwigsburg. The project “bwirkt” began 2018 and will research the impact of autonomous driving, especially the traffic impact, based on the result of research at the Baden-Württemberg test field of autonomous driving. The results will be applied to a traffic model for the region of Karlsruhe. One important question is whether autonomous cars will cause more or less traffic. A funding program to determine the effects of automated and autonomous driving on traffic is currently being prepared. Some other supported projects, a few involving autonomous driving in public transports system on the road, are finished, in progress or planed.