Combino (pilotless tram)

2018: Siemens provided the first-ever pilotless tram

On September 4, 2018 Siemens and its partner the VIP of Verkehrsbetrieb Potsdam provided, according to the companies, the first-ever pilotless tram. It is going to be tested in the conditions of real road to movements on section 6 km long in the German city of Potsdam within the action of InnoTrans 2018 which will take place from September 18 to September 21, 2018.

The Combino tram begins testings for identification of potential problems and determination of scales of further work on the project. The pilotless tram is equipped with several cameras and also lidarny and radar sensors which allow it to be guided in the environment. The tram processes data retrieveds using difficult algorithms and selects necessary option of actions.

A system will consider traffic light signals, road signs, placement of stops on the line, automatically reacts to emergence before the car of pedestrians, cars and other possible obstacles.

Combino is the first-ever pilotless tram

The head of department of Siemens Mobility Sabrina Soussan noted that at this stage of developments the pilotless tram is already capable to cope with the main situations arising at the movement in traffic flow. He can be guided in road signs, stop on certain places and also instantly react to the movement of other vehicles and pedestrians. Among other security systems the new pilotless tram uses the program of warnings of possible collision of Siemens Tram Assistant developed especially for this vehicle and successfully approved in the German city of Ulm.

Siemens developers consider that, thanks to information technology development and the corresponding infrastructure, they will already be able shortly to provide safe pilotless vehicles for local trips. But so far it is not going to use the pilotless tram for commercial purposes.^[1]

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