Autonomous driving in public transportation introduces new challenges for technology, operations and organizations. The KIRA project is one of the pioneering initiatives in Germany, operating autonomous vehicles with public users in the RMV region. By the time of the conference, KIRA will have gained more than one year of real-world operational experience. The presentation will share operational and technical insights from daily operations, including incident handling, safety concepts and passenger acceptance. In addition, it will offer a vision of how autonomous mobility services can evolve from pilot projects into a reliable and scalable component of public transportation.

• Practical insights into operating autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic and public transportation environments
• Lessons learned from integrating autonomous systems into existing public transportation operations
• User acceptance as a critical factor for scaling autonomous mobility services
• What is needed to evolve autonomous on-demand services from pilot projects into a reliable and scalable part of public transportation