DT and Mira test teleoperated vehicle in Bonn
- August 15, 2023
- Steve Rogerson
Deutsche Telekom and German transportation company Mira have jointly launched a pilot project for teleoperated driving.
They are testing the shuttle service with teleoperated operation between various Deutsche Telekom locations in Bonn.
Teleoperation can support automated shuttle fleets. For example, the technology avoids long idle and waiting times. Controlling vehicles remotely from a control centre also increases vehicle use.
“We are convinced that teleoperated driving will play an important role in improving the efficiency and sustainability of transport,” said Klaus Kappen, CEO of Mira. “By working with Deutsche Telekom, we can develop innovations for the mobility of the future and test them on public roads today.”
Teleoperated driving requires a low-latency, high-performance 5G network. DT’s network ensures the transmission of large volumes of data in real time from the vehicle to the remote-control station, allowing vehicles to be reliably controlled remotely.
“Mobility is changing,” said Olga Nevska, managing director of Telekom Mobility. “In the future, teleoperation will take people from A to B in a new way, safely and conveniently. We want to make this possible for our colleagues, too, and that’s why we are testing a teleoperated vehicle on the test track at Deutsche Telekom headquarters.”
Bonn’s mayor Katja Dörner added: “Bicycle, bus, light rail and streetcar, Bonn already stands for modern and climate-friendly mobility services. We are pleased to be one of the first cities in Germany to enable tests for an innovative shuttle service: remote-controlled vehicles. Passengers will save time. Shuttle operations will become more efficient. Teleoperation can become a building block of our Bonn mobility turnaround in the future, with strong public transport and safe, attractive services for everyone.”
In the future, 5G technologies such as network slicing or quality on demand will make applications possible that rely on extremely low latency and high bandwidths at the same time. The pilot project provides Deutsche Telekom with in-depth insights into the requirements for these new technologies and for the 5G network infrastructure, which are enormously important for the development of driverless mobility.
Mira has set itself the goal of shaping the path to automated driving and thus the future of mobility. With teleoperation, Mira makes it possible to meet challenges in local transport and logistics with new, efficient and individual mobility models.
In Germany, remote-controlled journeys are still regulated. They are only permitted on private property or defined test routes. Teleoperation can become an important building block in the mobility of the future. The legal framework for teleoperation is being defined at national and European level.
