Germany’s Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure is awarding €10.9 million to the KelRide project, which will further develop autonomous driving in the Kelheim district in Bavaria.

The aim of the KelRide project is to introduce an autonomous on-demand ride pooling service that is integrated directly into the public transport network and can be operated under all weather conditions. A mixed fleet of highly automated and conventional shuttles integrated into the local public transport system is intended to transport passengers in the operating area.

To this end, a needs-based ride pooling service is being established for the district that works with electric and highly automated shuttles. The service is part of the local public transport system in the Kelheim district and operated on a platform that combines the industry-leading technologies and experience of the consortium partners in the areas of autonomous vehicles, fleet management and on-demand mobility into a modern mobility solution.

In addition, the planning and testing processes for the future assessment of new types of highly automated vehicles for use in real operation from 2023 are to be developed in the project. The project is intended to serve as a scalable blueprint for a large number of cities and counties across Germany.

Project partners are EASYMILE GmbH, Kehlheim district, TÜV Rheinland Intertraffic GmbH, Technical University of Berlin, ViaVan GmbH, and P3 Automotive GmbH.