Germany unveils world's first automated, driverless train to operate in city of Hamburg

In a landmark innovation, German rail operator Deutsche Bahn and industrial group Siemens on Monday unveiled the world’s first automated, driverless train in the city of Hamburg, Germany. Labelled as the more punctual and energy-efficient than traditional trains, the first-ever driverless train in Germany will join the northern city’s S-Bahn rapid urban rail network and will be operational from December onwards. It would be the first time that a fully automated Hamburg train will run on sharing tracks with other regular trains. While other cities in Europe, for instance, Paris, already have driverless metros and the airports often have automated monorail trains plying terminals, those are operated on exclusive single tracks, according to local German reports. 

Siemens and Deutsche Bahn’s “world first” automated train is part of a 60 million euro ($70 million) modernisation of Hamburg’s rapid urban rail system. “We are making rail transport more intelligent,” Siemens CEO Roland Busch told the German broadcasters and the agencies.  The driverless and fully automated trains can transport “up to 30 percent more passengers, significantly improve punctuality and save more than 30 percent energy,” the companies stated in a release on 11 October. The project implemented Automatic Train Operation technology in the passenger regional train. Authorities on Monday stated that the driverless train would be more punctual and energy-efficient than traditional passenger trains that run on fuel or electricity and are driven by a person. 

Russia's futuristic self-driving taxi 'Flip'

Russia's SberAutoTech, similarly, in a groundbreaking invention had unveiled the futuristic self-driving taxi known as ‘FLIP’ which it described met the “maximum requirement of international automated driving standards”. The subsidiary of Russia’s largest ecosystem lender Sberbank, revealed the fast-swappable batteries, an unmanned prototype of the vehicle powered by both electricity and other alternative fuels such as natural gas and hydrogen. In a company release, SberAutoTech announced that the new "fully autonomous" electric vehicle meets the “fifth level of autonomy” as the prototype has no steering wheel or room for the driver. The fifth level of autonomy assumes that the system can fully control the vehicle under all circumstances,” the company said. Vehicles were fully integrated with the Sber ecosystem, and it enabled the passengers to access the navigation through the 2GIS service, music from SberSvuk, and video from the Okko online cinema.