Anyone in Hamburg who registered in advance has been able, since 15 July, to do something previously open to no one in Germany: summon a minibus through an app and watch it steer through city traffic without a driver's help. The Volkswagen offshoot Moia is starting with up to ten battery-electric ID. Buzz vehicles, operating in parts of Winterhude, Barmbek and Wandsbek. During the test phase the rides are free.
What is new here is less the technology than the access. Autonomous trips had already been happening at Moia, a company spokesperson conceded — they simply had not been open to the public. The passenger launch had originally been announced for mid-2025.
A trained human still sits at the wheel and can take over at any moment, and that is not a formality: a safety driver has reportedly already had to intervene, for instance when a shuttle approached a crosswalk that pedestrians were about to use. The vehicles rely on a system from Mobileye, a company in which Intel holds a stake, which combines cameras, radar and lidar into a 360-degree picture and is designed for automation level 4 within a tightly defined area.
A complement, not a replacement
The trial belongs to the ALIKE project, which the federal government is funding with 26 million euros over 36 months. Alongside Moia, the partners are Hamburger Hochbahn, VW Commercial Vehicles, the manufacturer Holon and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, which is to study what the service does to existing bus routes and the taxi trade. The service area covers roughly 37 square kilometres; bookings run through the Moia app, and soon through hvv switch as well. The whole thing is conceived as a feeder to buses and trains rather than a rival to them — the partners' hope is to pull people out of their own cars.
What stands out is how far expectations have been tempered. In 2023 Hamburg's transport authority held out the prospect of up to 10,000 autonomous vehicles by 2030; according to a report in Welt, it now reckons with only a few hundred. From late 2026 the service is to continue with gradually reduced driver intervention. When trips without a safety driver will be possible is for the licensing authorities to decide. Others in Hamburg are working on this too: Hochbahn and the Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein have similar plans, and Freenow wants to offer autonomous taxis.