Since the beginning of the year, in addition to the cooperative vehicles and the traffic signals, the inner-city test track for automated and connected driving (TAVF) and the circuit in HafenCity of the Hamburg Electric Autonomous Transportation (HEAT) research and development project have been connected. By equipping the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge, a bascule bridge in HafenCity, with Roadside ITS Stations (R-ITS-S), the link between the two test sites was completed. For more than two years, both test tracks have been successfully built and operated. In the process, the technical upgrading is constantly being further developed. The two test tracks TAVF and HEAT are together over twelve kilometres long. Starting on the TAVF in Hamburg's city centre at Rödingsmarkt, via the Dammtor railway station, the exhibition halls, the Landungsbrücken and the Elbphilharmonie and ending with the HEAT route in HafenCity, 42 traffic lights and the Mahatma Gandhi Bridge are currently equipped with communication units (ITS-G5) and a corresponding digital information provision. For this purpose, the intersection topologies and signal states are sent in the MAP and SPaT messages.
Automated and connected driving is an important step for the future mobility of Hamburg, as it can improve traffic efficiency and, above all, traffic safety for all participants, especially vulnerable road users such as pedestrians or cyclists in urban traffic, and lead to less noise and pollutant emissions.
Both are flagship projects of the ITS World Congress in Hamburg in October 2021.
The HEAT project
The test operation of Hamburg Electric Autonomous Transportation (HEAT) started in 2019 on a 0.8-kilometre test route without passengers and at a speed of 15 km/h in HafenCity. HEAT is a research and development project unique in Germany, in which Hamburger Hochbahn, together with other partners, is testing the first electrically driven driverless minibus in public transport. From the end of 2020, the first passengers could already test the minibus at a speed of up to 25 km/h and stopping at fixed stops. The final test will take place this year on an extended test route of 1.8 km. The project will go back into test operation from April 2021, and passengers will be able to board from summer 2021.
More information on the HEAT project: www.hochbahn.de/heat
TAVF test track HEAT test track
Previous news
