On the grounds of Paderborn Airport, engineer Michael Spengler demonstrates how far self-driving technology has come in Germany. He enters a route into his smartphone, taps a button and rests his hands in his lap. The small car begins to roll, navigating at a leisurely 7 kilometers per hour (4 mph) between buildings and parked vehicles.
“It can go faster — 20 to 25 kilometers per hour is no problem,” the researcher from Augsburg University of Applied Sciences said while sitting in the driver’s seat — only as a safeguard, he explained, ready to take over if something goes wrong.
Cameras, radar, so-called Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors and a high-performance computer keep the car on course. After a short loop, the vehicle brakes on its own at the destination, where a crowd waits to also get a first taste of autonomous driving.
The event was organized by NeMo (New Mobility) Paderborn, a coalition of 75 partners from academia and industry. Like several other consortia across the country, it hopes to help Germany claim a leadership role in the technology.
But the challenges are steep in Germany. High car ownership, a strong taxi lobby and a well-developed public transit network leave little room for newcomers to the mobility market. Many projects have fizzled out once government funding dried up.
The energy-efficient swarm
Germany has authorized Level 4 autonomy, which allows passengers to sleep, work or watch movies while traveling — provided vehicles operate on preapproved routes or under remote supervision.
But according to the German motorists’ association ADAC, progress is slow partly because it is absolutely unthinkable for German manufacturers to go into series production with an immature system.
And so, while driverless taxis are already a common sight in parts of the United States and China, German deployments remain limited to shuttles and minibuses on fixed, local routes.
Several German towns and cities like Munich and Monheim are testing autonomous driving, and even though not a single accident has happened with such a car, conventional car drivers have reportedly been annoyed by their overly cautious driving style.
NeMo wants to change that. Its concept involves a “swarm” of lightweight autonomous cabs handling short trips and first-and-last-mile connections. For longer distances, the cars can couple automatically to an autonomous tractor unit, forming a convoy before separating near their destinations.
In late August, the first cabs were allowed to drive autonomously on airport grounds. The larger tractor vehicle is still under development, with the first commercial rollout expected in Paderborn by 2026.
Energy efficiency is the project’s calling card. The cabs, designed for up to four passengers, are half the weight of a conventional car and carry only small batteries, limiting their range.
To compensate, the tractor unit will “recharge them on the move, powered by its own battery, hydrogen tank and fuel cell,” said Thomas Tröster of Paderborn University, adding that traveling in the tractor unit’s slipstream also reduces the cabs’ energy consumption.
“We’re not retrofitting existing cars for autonomy; we’re building entirely new vehicles,” Tröster told DW.
Rural mobility reimagined
Munich startup INYO is supplying the autonomous cars, while HOLON — a spinoff of German auto supplier Benteler — is developing the tractor units.
The service is designed to be cheaper than a taxi but not much more expensive than going by bus. “It depends on whether passengers are willing to accept waiting times, have luggage and whether they accept others joining during the ride,” said Tröster. For example, a woman might want to book a vehicle for herself alone at night for an extra fee.
NeMo describes the model as “individualized public transit” — especially suited to rural areas where buses are infrequent.
Etteln, a village near Paderborn, is among them. In 2024, it was named the “world’s smartest” by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the world’s largest professional association for technical professionals in electrical and electronic engineering.
Speaking with DW, Etteln’s mayor, Ulrich Ahle, said the community has been running a so-called e-village car service for five years, in which people can book rides via smartphone. A service for residents without a driver’s license would be the “next logical step,” he said, adding that the Etteln had already created a 3D digital twin of the village, where the autonomous cabs have begun driving virtually.
From pilots to mainstream
Elsewhere, Germany’s biggest city experiments are moving faster. In Hamburg, transit operator Hochbahn is deploying about 20 autonomous vehicles in partnership with HOLON and Volkswagen subsidiary MOIA. The fleet will include minibuses for up to 15 passengers and Volkswagen (VW) electric cars for smaller groups.
Initially, safety drivers will be present, but the vehicles will operate without fixed routes or schedules. Test users will be able to book rides via an app within a densely populated 37-square-kilometer zone.
The Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) predicts the first regular Level 4 services could launch within five years. The vehicles are technically mature and legally permitted.
But it cautions that autonomous driving won’t solve Germany’s traffic and land-use problems if it simply replaces the country’s 48 million private cars one-for-one. Instead, driverless fleets must be integrated into the public transit system, and scaling up will not come cheap.
So, rather than continuing to finance temporary pilot projects, the industry group wants the German government to support a nationwide rollout. Only then, it argues, can the government live up to its pledge to become a global leader in autonomous mobility.
This article was originally written in German.
