The Project HEAT (Hamburg Electric Autonomous Transportation) will be making autonomous driving visible and tangible in Hamburg using local, zero-emissions shuttle buses in a pilot test area. The aim is to develop, prepare, test and implement electric autonomous vehicles and systems for use in normal traffic. The environmentally friendly vehicles are being developed especially for Hamburg.
A consortium made up of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, represented by the Ministry of Economics, Transport and Innovation (BWVI), the Hamburger Hochbahn AG, the Landesbetrieb Straßen, Brücken und Gewässer (State corporation for streets, bridges and waterways – LSBG), Hamburg Verkehrsanlagen GmbH (HHVA) and in cooperation with partners from the industrial and scientific sectors applied for funding from the “Erneuerbar Mobil” (Renewable mobility) funding programme with this idea.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety has now announced that it will be funding Project HEAT. BWVI, LSBG and HHVA will receive roughly 2.7 million euros in funding. HOCHBAHN, which is responsible for the project management, will receive approximately one million euros. HOCHBAHN will pay for another 1.5 million euros from their own budget.The project is scheduled to last four years.
Other project partners include automotive engineering (IAV), one of whose shareholders is Volkswagen, Siemens AG, the Institute for Climate Protection, Energy and Mobility (IKEM), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and hySOLUTIONS GmbH.
The mobility of tomorrow, “autonomous driving” with electric shuttle buses, is Project HEAT’s key topic, making it a central component for the city’s ITS strategy. It will also be a demonstration project for the upcoming ITS World Congress 2021, which will be taking place in Hamburg after the city’s bid to host it was recently endorsed in Montreal, Canada.
Additional information
The funding of this project has been approved by the Federal Ministry for the Environment. The Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg and the Hamburger Hochbahn AG received 3.7 million euros in funding.
Photo credits: www.mediaserver.hamburg.de / Ralf Brunner
