Self-driving buses in Salzburg and Carinthia supplement the public transport network. In Carinthia alone, SURAAA has carried more than 14,000 passengers since 2018.
No matter how well developed the public transport network, the car is still very attractive if you still have to lug your groceries hundreds of meters to your home. Therefore, this “last mile” is a particularly important component in a modern traffic concept. From the spring, however, a completely new model will be used with an automated VW E-Crafter. “Last mile in regular service” “The project is primarily about the last mile in regular service,” explains Michael Karnutsch, project manager at Salzburg Research . In Koppl it is actually around a mile. The self-driving bus – an operator is always on board in order to be able to intervene in an emergency – will cover 1.7 kilometers until it connects to the bus lines on the Wolfgangsee federal road and will be synchronized with the connections to Salzburg and Bad Ischl. In Pörtschach , Carinthia, electric minibuses have been driving completely driverless in the town center since 2018 and transport guests and locals free of charge. “Since then, we have transported around 14,000 passengers and are using the shuttles on municipal and federal roads,” reports project manager Walter Prutej. Here you too can contribute to climate protection and sign the initiative “Restart for a crisis-proof Austria”! Best practice example nominated “With the project, we have been nominated nationwide by the BMK as a best practice example and solution module for overcoming the climate crisis.” And the autonomous shuttle has also caused a stir outside of Austria – a German delegation recently visited Pörtschach .
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