Since 2015, Hamburg has been governed by a coalition of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens. In 2020, Anjes Tjarks became the city’s first Green Senator for Transport. Together, the red-green Senate has since driven forward the idea of integrating autonomous services into the urban mobility mix. Recently, technical trial operations began with driverless HOLON Mover minibuses from Benteler. They are not the first autonomous systems on the city’s streets.
Back in 2021, Hamburg tested an EasyMile EZ10 minibus on a nearly 2-kilometre route to trial autonomous bus services in the inner city. The project, named HEAT (Hamburg Electric Autonomous Transportation), was one of the lighthouse initiatives presented during the World Congress on Intelligent Transport Systems, which took place in the Hanseatic city four years ago.
Driverless and connected: ALIKE, MOIA and HOLON paving the way for tomorrow’s mobility
While HEAT was still closely modelled on traditional bus operations, the ALIKE project – launched in October 2023 with more than €25 million in funding from the Federal Ministry of Transport – focuses on establishing ridepooling services with autonomous vehicles. “Hamburg is a pioneer in Europe when it comes to autonomous driving. Our aim is to work closely with the federal government, our partners and industry in order to introduce vehicles capable of fully autonomous operation into service for the first time in the EU. This is the prerequisite for the deployment of larger fleets and, for Europe, a very important industrial policy issue,” explains Anjes Tjarks, who is responsible for the city’s mobility transition as Senator for Transport.
One of the consortium partners is the mobility service MOIA, which has expanded its fleet with 25 autonomous vehicles as of mid-2025. After a testing phase, up to four passengers are set to be transported later this year in driverless ID Buzz AD minibuses in two Hamburg districts. This is made possible above all by the self-driving system of technology company Mobileye – which is also at the heart of the HOLON Mover. As an independent brand within the Benteler Group, HOLON is strongly committed to the design and production of autonomous transport vehicles. The Mover, first unveiled at CES 2023 in Las Vegas, can carry up to 15 people and is designed to be fully accessible. Acoustic and visual systems, a secured wheelchair space and an automatic ramp ensure that people with physical disabilities and other mobility restrictions can also benefit from the service. Unlike MOIA’s ID Buzz AD, the HOLON minibuses are operated by Hamburger Hochbahn AG.
Next stage: passenger operations
A 37-square-kilometre area in the heart of Hamburg serves as a real-world laboratory. Alongside roughly 300,000 residents, thousands of commuters and tourists travel here every day. During the first testing phase, running until the end of this year, the focus will be on trialling basic functions, before the Mover gradually takes on more autonomous responsibilities. If everything goes to plan, passenger operations could begin in 2026. “With autonomous minibuses such as the HOLON Mover, we want to make public transport even more efficient, more flexible and therefore more attractive to passengers,” says Senator Tjarks with an optimistic outlook. “The arrival of the new vehicle and the first journeys on Hamburg’s streets mark another milestone.”
> This article was written in cooperation with Drones, the magazine for the drone economy. www.drones-magazin.de
