Welcome to the AMoTech Mobility Lab

AMoTech is entirely focused on autonomous mobility and the development of related services and solutions. In order to acquire the necessary experience and capabilities, and to help finding the right partners, AMoTech is establishing the “Mobility Lab at the Rhine Falls”, a centre of competence for autonomous mobility. To jump-start its activities, AMoTech has purchased a self-driving vehicle, which has been undergoing testing operations in Neuhausen since June 2017.

From Self-Driving to Driverless

Today, the countries that have ratified the Vienna Convention on Road Traffic forbid driverless vehicles on publicly accessible ground. Therefore, a supervisor is always on board in today’s pilot tests with self-driving vehicles. If the driver is to be eliminated from the vehicle, the resulting gap must be closed by technical and organisational means. AMoTech is collaborating with authorities, vehicle manufacturers and public transport companies to define, implement and evaluate the substitute measures required to allow fully driverless vehicles in the future.

Novel Public Transport Services Involving Self-Driving Vehicles

Even today, public transport is a complex system made up of various complementary transport modes which in combination provide services for travellers. Self-driving vehicles allow additional profitable and innovative services to be offered. In collaboration with its partners, the local public transport companies, AMoTech defines such services and implements them in an operations control system for autonomous vehicles.

The Operations Control System Is Key to Transforming a Self-Driving Vehicle into an Autonomous Vehicle

The transport operations control system gives the vehicle the appropriate orders at the right time, thereby making it autonomous. In addition, the control room – from where the dispatchers co-ordinate operations and inform passengers in the event of irregularities – combines the functions ensuring safe driverless operation. By means of the AMoTech solution, Trapeze now is able to integrate self-driving vehicles in its operations control backends, making it a pioneer in the field of autonomous mobility. This integration allows the operations to be fine-tuned as a whole, including coordination with regular services and seamless traveller information. Operations including self-driving vehicles thereby become accessible to all Trapeze customers.

Touristic Service to the Rhine Falls

In an initial project, as soon as the required approvals and licences have been obtained, a self-driving vehicle supplied by the Navya company is to provide services around the Rhine Falls in Neuhausen. Plans are to incorporate this vehicle during the tourist season from March to October in the existing bus fleet and network of the Schaffhausen Transport Authority (VBSH) in Neuhausen and to operate it along a defined route on the basis of a regular schedule. For this purpose, the vehicle is to be integrated technically in the operations control system of VBSH and to be monitored by their dispatchers.