MAN Truck & Bus
13 Mar 2024
Mobility Move, held from 5 to 7 March in Berlin, showcased innovations in electromobility, self-driving and digitalisation. One highlight was the BeIntelli bus on the MAN stand.
“Bringing the future to the streets” was this year’s tagline for Germany’s biggest conference and trade show for road-based public transportation. Industry visitors could see for themselves what that actually means at the MAN stand in the Estrel Congress Center. There, they found a MAN Lion’s City 12 E that caught the eye not just because of its environmentally friendly electric drive – as the showcase bus for the BeIntelli project, it is also fitted with state-of-the-art sensor and computer technology. 3D-LIDAR, radar, cameras, ultrasound sensors and a clearly visible server in the front section of the passenger cabin enable the electric Lion to travel autonomously through the traffic.
It therefore comes as no surprise that many visitors took the opportunity to take a look inside the bus of the future and find out more about the technology for themselves. For example, a monitor enabled them to see a live view of what the LIDAR sensors could see around the vehicle – people, furniture and other nearby exhibits were clear to see in the scatter plot. Another screen showed the recording of a trial run on a test track: the vehicle travelled safely in its lane and, thanks to its sophisticated sensors, recognised traffic lights, road signs and other road users.
Surroundings in view: Nothing around the vehicle escapes the LIDAR sensors of the explanatory bus.
“With the BeIntelli showcase bus, we want to familiarise the worlds of industry, politics, science and society with the possibilities of the autonomous mobility of the future,” explained Prof. Sahin Albayrak, BeIntelli Consortium and Project Leader. “Ten integrated displays and six tablets inside the vehicle show how the bus perceives and anticipates its surroundings, what route it is planning and what driving decisions it makes.” Testing is currently taking place on private land before the bus takes to the streets of Berlin’s city centre autonomously in the summer. An urban test site has been created in the heart of Berlin, running from the Brandenburg Gate, through Ernst-Reuter-Platz and past the Gedächtniskirche to Adenauerplatz.
Bus strategist: Mustafa Tasaltin provided information on the development of MAN's electric lions.
MAN is working on the BeIntelli project with the DAI laboratory at the Technical University of Berlin and IAV GmbH Ingenieurgesellschaft Auto und Verkehr. The overall project, operating under the umbrella of ZEKI | Zentrum für Erlebbare KI und Digitalisierung (Center for Tangible AI and Digitalization) and backed by the German Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV), is the work of a large interdisciplinary team from scientific and practical spheres with the aim of making an intelligent traffic system with automated vehicles a reality. “We use our own software stack for the bus, developed specifically for this project,” explains Marc Guerriero Augusto, BeIntelli Project Coordinator. “Once the Federal Motor Transport Authority (KBA) has granted a test license, it will be made available to the public for test drives in our real-world laboratory.”
Forecast: Tim Alscher from IAV expects driverless buses towards the end of the 2020s.
Tim Alscher, the project manager responsible at IAV, believes that public passenger transport is the ideal first application for automated driving. “The buses are on the move around the clock, which is why automation makes particular sense here. BeIntelli is creating a key basis for this – and for a revolution in public transport.” Alscher is confident that the first driverless buses will be in use by the end of the decade.
Expert in automated driving: Jana Kirchen from MAN is registering great customer interest in driverless buses.
A similar view is held by Jana Kirchen, Product Strategy Manager for Autonomous Driving at MAN and responsible for the technology roadmap, product planning and partnerships. “From 2030, we would like to be building buses with SAE level 4 automation that can operate in traffic without a driver.” She claims that interest from potential customers is high – the worsening driver shortage is pushing transport operators to seek technical solutions to enable them to maintain, or even expand, their service offering in the future. “That’s why MAN is involved with BeIntelli and other projects such as MINGA,” explained Kirchen. “The aim of MINGA is to integrate an automated bus into an existing bus line in Munich. The pilot scheme is set to start in 2025. For MINGA, we will be using an eBus with the new E/E architecture from MAN, which allows highly effective integration of automated driving functions.”
Bus strategist: Mustafa Tasaltin talked about the development of MAN's electric lions.
Mustafa Tasaltin, Senior Vice President Engineering, Product and Project Management Bus, updated visitors in Berlin on the current status and next development steps for the electric Lions. “Our eBuses have proven themselves equally well in the winter cold of Oslo and the heat of Valencia. With the next generation batteries, due to enter large-scale series production in Nuremberg in 2025, we will be able to increase their range still further. We intend to push these developments even further in the next few years, also making use of the combined expertise of Volkswagen and TRATON.”
Appreciation: The "Favourite Bus Driver" initiative recognises the people behind the wheel.
The “LieblingsbusfahrerIn”, or “Favourite Bus Driver” initiative, backed by MAN, entered its second round at Mobility Move. Public transport passengers can visit www.lieblingsbusfahrerin.de to submit a specific event or fond memory, nominating their own favourite driver. “There are many wonderful public transport employees,” explained Karl-Peter Naumann, Honorary Chairman of the PRO BAHN Passenger Association and the man behind this campaign. “We want to make them more visible through this initiative.” Marion Heber, Head of HR at DB Regio Straße, added, “Our drivers are the heart of our company. We’re already feeling the driver shortage, and this is just the beginning. That’s why we not only need to recruit, we also need to improve staff loyalty. We want the LieblingsbusfahrerIn initiative to help improve the image of the profession.” That’s a major concern, because public transport without a human at the wheel is still inconceivable for the time being.
Text: Christian Buck
Photos: Emil Levy
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