Greater road safety, less traffic

The advantages of automated vehicles are manifold. Electric vehicles that transport several people at the same time make a significant contribution to the mobility transition.

"The mobility transition does not mean making traffic congestion electric."

Habeck (Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection in Germany, 20 August 2021)

This has also been recognised by Swiss politicians. Robotaxis are not the primary focus, but rather the use of so-called shuttles, which transport several people from A to B at the same time and come closest to the system of bus services that exist today. Another advantage of automated shuttles is that they can be ordered "on demand" thanks to their advanced technology. A user can book the shuttle via the app at an ideal time for them and the shuttle will combine journey requests, thereby avoiding unnecessary multiple journeys.

Mobility as a service - a model with a future

The future lies in a comprehensive, personalised mobility offer. When debating the benefits of rail and road, the road automation revolution offers greater potential for increasing efficiency, reducing costs and introducing innovative services - at least in theory. According to the FEDRO scenarios, rail offers fewer advantages in this context. The focus should therefore be on promoting road public transport. This should be seen as an opportunity to further develop the strengths of public transport systems.

This is one of the reasons why the Swiss government strongly supports the concept of ridepooling (shuttles/sharing) and recognises it as an important approach for future transport.

The success of new mobility services depends on reducing the number of personal vehicles without generating unnecessary additional traffic. In other words: the aim is to move from ownership of individual vehicles to MaaS (Mobility as a Service) solutions.