KIST_EBAM

Energy saving, citizen-friendly and automated mobility is the key to sustainable development. The aim of this study is to compile a strategy suitable for implementing the automated citizen mobility innovation plans of the future that will be economic and primarily powered by renewable energy. The study will comprise energy production methods ranging from storage to use.

The project team
The project team

Existing situation:
Steyr-Kirchdorf is a region that faces major challenges in its multiple roles as an Alpine natural heritage area, an important economic location and a settlement zone. Economic operation of the regional public transport network – the ÖPNV – is frequently not possible when use intensity is low, a situation resulting in a weak transport provision. Against this background households in thinly settled rural areas here are thus under pressure to maintain at least one car in the family. Since the personnel costs in regional bus transport represent over 50% of the total operating costs equation, a self-driving vehicle operation is a clear option for improving efficiency. The use of robotics in combination with environmentally friendly electric mobility opens up the possibility for making public transport significantly more flexible and intensive in its services and to make the region significantly more attractive in the process. The technologies for achieving a fully automated public transport system have already demonstrated their functionality in some specific areas of application and are on the point of a final technical break-through to market maturity. The constraining factors for this lie in social acceptance and cooperation as also in the coordinated application of the technologies logistics, route planning, safety and communication requirements involved.
Contents and objectives:
The implementation of a model region in which an automated self-driving mobility based primarily on renewable energy carriers can be made clearly visible, will give impetus to and help innovations to take off here and beyond the borders of the region. The fundamental innovative content of this exploratory study plan is in the installation of a social process the “mobility laboratory”), which will steer the discourse of all the parties involved while also bundling each of the essential forces required for making implementation a practical reality. The idea of establishing open technology laboratories (“living labs”) is provided with a special focus here: automated mobility powered by up to 100% with renewable energies. Mobility laboratories have an established practice record in urban areas, but have not yet appeared with this focus in rural areas.
Methodical approach:
The applied methods are:
• technology portfolio analysis
• desktop work for analysis and evaluation
• presentations and workshops including experts
Expected results:
The targeted outcome here is a scientific, technical, organisational and economic overall concept for implementing a rural forerunner and flagship region for automated self-driving mobility based fundamentally on renewable energy carriers. The project cluster is intended to comprise ways and means for the generation and storage of energy through to its usage in innovative transport systems (above all with an ICT focus). A particular priority will be to spotlight and develop the acceptance factors for technical solutions within the population. The overall concept comprises a strategy including a description of the region, a schedule plus an account of the economic feasibility, preparation of suitable consortia, defining cooperation and management structures, the definition of planned R&D work and establishing implementation plans in consultation with all the participant groups involved. An energy-saving, citizen-friendly and self-driving automated mobility is the key to sustainable development here. The new technical possibilities comprised in this plan have the potential on appropriate acceptance, of making a significant contribution to strengthening the rural region.