- Public transport companies and the private sector work together in partnership essential for future mobility solutions
- Bundling of expertise for development and testing projects on autonomous ride-pooling in Hamburg
- Joint development of specific proposals for the implementation of the "Hamburg-Takt" initiative by 2030
Hamburg, 13 January 2022 – 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 today. 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.
Photo information: HOCHBAHN and MOIA together for the traffic turnaround, from left to right: Robert Henrich, CEO of MOIA, and Henrik Falk, Chairman of the Executive Board of HOCHBAHN (© HOCHBAHN).
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About Hamburger Hochbahn
Founded in 1911, HOCHBAHN uses its own fleet of more than 250 subways and 1,100 buses, HOCHBAHN transports more than 1.2 million passengers a day. As one of 34 partners in the Hamburg Transport Association (hvv), HOCHBAHN serves over 1,400 stops and is the largest transport company in the hvv service area. Over 6,000 employees work around the clock at HOCHBAHN to provide attractive local public transport and convenient, future-oriented mobility in Hamburg. More information at www.hochbahn.de.
About the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand
‘We transport success, freedom and future.’ As a stand-alone brand within the Volkswagen Group, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (VWCV) is responsible for the development, construction and sales of light commercial vehicles. They include the Transporter, Caddy and Amarok ranges, which are produced in Hannover (D), Poznań (PL), Września (PL) and Pacheco (ARG). Our vehicles transport construction workers, families and adventurers, bread rolls, parcels and surfboards. Every day they help countless people all over the world to do a good job, they operate as mobile workshops and they bring paramedics and the police to wherever they are needed. Within the Volkswagen Group, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles is also the lead brand for Autonomous Driving, Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and Transport as a Service (TaaS), and in future will therefore be developing and producing corresponding Special Purpose Vehicles (SPV), such as robo-taxis and robo-vans. In this way we are transporting an entire society, with all its requirements for clean, intelligent and sustainable mobility. Working at the company’s sites around the globe are more than 24,000 employees, including around 15,000 at the Hannover site. More information at www.volkswagen-nutzfahrzeuge.de.
About MOIA
MOIA is a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The company develops mobility services in Berlin and Hamburg and works in partnership with cities and local public transport operators. MOIA is currently developing and implementing a ridesharing system to avoid individual car traffic and use the road infrastructure more efficiently. Cities are relieved of congestion, noise and emissions. MOIA started its ridesharing in Hanover in summer 2018, followed by Hamburg on April 15, 2019, the first city with over a million inhabitants. Together with Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and Argo AI, MOIA is currently developing and testing autonomous ridepooling in a pilot project in Hamburg. The goal is to develop an autonomous, internationally scalable ridepooling system by 2025. More information at www.moia.io.
Contact
Christoph Ziegenmeyer
Head of Communications
MOIA GmbH
christophz@moia.io
+49 172 177 66 82
Christoph Kreienbaum
Head of Corporate Communications
Hamburger Hochbahn AG
presse@hochbahn.de
+49 178 628 2121