During the route inspection, IOV managing director Matthias Höring and Constantin Pitzen from the autoBus office, which has accompanied the project from the beginning, led the 13-member project group two kilometers from the planned starting stop behind the Ilmenau train station to the final stop on the campus. Together with the civil engineering office, the public order office, the police and fire departments, and the testing company DEKRA, final adjustments to the infrastructure were coordinated that are necessary for the smooth operation of the buses, which are accompanied only by a safety driver. The French company EasyMile, which develops transport solutions for autonomous passenger and freight transport, had sent two representatives from its Berlin office to Ilmenau to inspect the route and the positions and possible extensions of the stops. Robert Haase from EasyMile is convinced by the route: "Connecting the train station with various stations on the university campus is a perfect application scenario for the use of autonomous shuttles and an excellent example of bridging gaps on the so-called first and last mile."
Now that EasyMile has classified the route as fundamentally suitable for autonomous bus transport and DEKRA will have drawn up its route and vehicle appraisal on the basis of the inspection, nothing stands in the way of successful approval of the automated minibuses. They will be delivered when the newly constructed Schöffenhausstraße, which connects Neuhäuser Weg and Ehrenbergstraße, is completed. Before the buses are measured on the route by sensors, the last hardware components still have to be integrated and preparations made for the depot with charging facilities located on the ThIMo site.
The city of Ilmenau and the Thüringer Innovationszentrum Mobilität are already working with industry partners Funkwerk Systems and Lehmann & Partner on the P:Mover project to plan further sections of the route for the use of even more highly automated buses.
