Hamburger Hochbahn AG (HOCHBAHN), Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and MOIA are planning joint projects in the coming years to drive forward the transformation of mobility in Hamburg. This is the outcome of a memorandum of understanding presented by the companies. The agreement focuses on collaboration in autonomous driving, inter-modality and the development of proposals for the implementation of the “Hamburg-Takt”. The aim of the cooperation is to reduce traffic-related emissions and noise, increase the efficiency of road traffic and improve the integration of public and private mobility services.
The first concrete example of the new partnership is the Hamburg pilot project for autonomous driving by Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and MOIA. HOCHBAHN will contribute its expertise from its own autonomous project “HEAT” and, among other things, help set up entry and exit stops. In addition, HOCHBAHN will participate in the testing of the autonomous ride-pooling service with a contingent for the closed user group. MOIA and VWN will share their findings and experiences from the trial with HOCHBAHN, particularly with regard to observed usage patterns, feedback on the service experience, and acceptance of fully automated passenger interaction.
Furthermore, the partnership focuses on measures to implement the “Hamburg-Takt”. The project partners have agreed to work together to develop specific proposals for expanding attractive and climate-friendly mobility services and to bring these into public debate. By 2030, every Hamburg resident should have access to a high-quality public mobility service within five minutes from morning to evening. The aim is to make the privately used car in Hamburg obsolete for even more people.
Henrik Falk, Chairman of the HOCHBAHN Executive Board: “We have known for a long time that change is not achieved by pointing fingers. If we want to convince people that shared mobility can meet all their needs, buses and trains alone are not enough. We need additional offers that are close to the comfort and flexibility of one’s own car. The Hamburg-Takt stands for intuitive, comfortable, fair, reliable, efficient and safe mobility in the city. The cooperation between MOIA, VWN and HOCHBAHN is an important element in this.”
Robert Henrich, CEO of MOIA, says: “HOCHBAHN, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and MOIA are joining forces to realize the traffic turnaround. Public transport and private mobility service providers must act in concert to successfully close the gap between public and private transport. In this regard, autonomous ride-pooling can make a decisive contribution. With this cooperation, we want to show how public and private companies can work together to make cities better places to live, safer and more beautiful – for everyone.”
Christian Senger, Head of Autonomous Driving at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, explains: “Hamburg is the model city for innovative mobility in Europe. The city is a reliable partner and open to innovations in the field of intelligent mobility. That is why we deliberately decided to bring autonomous driving to Hamburg together with Argo AI and MOIA. We are pleased that we can now add the new cooperation with HOCHBAHN to the existing partnerships between Volkswagen and Hamburg that have been in place since 2016.”
Under the umbrella of an overarching mobility partnership between the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and Volkswagen, which was signed in 2016 and renewed in 2019, the partners have already worked together successfully in recent years. Visible results of this cooperation included the integration of the MOIA service into the hvv switch booking platform, the use of the hvv switch infrastructure for convenient transfer points, and the implementation of the night transport service in the hvv rate during the corona pandemic.
Source: MOIA
