CulturalRoad collaborates with citizens and diverse stakeholders to ensure that the development of future Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) services reflect users’ mobility needs and cultural and geographical diversity, focusing on five pillars of transport equity: inclusivity, acceptance, safety, psychological factors, and network optimisation. To achieve this, CulturalRoad is validating its innovative methodology at five demonstration sites in Catalonia, Karlsruhe, Eilat, Ljubljana and the West Midlands and Oxfordshire regions. Join us for our series ‘Exploring CulturalRoad’s Demo Sites’, where we uncover the unique features of each location. Our first destination in Karlsruhe, a vibrant city in southwestern Germany.
Karlsruhe: a dynamic hub for mobility
Karlsruhe is located in southwestern Germany’s Baden-Württemberg state, near the French border alongside the Rhine River and close to the Black Forest. Its summers are notably hot, and the city experiences more sunshine than many other regions, benefiting from its location in the Rhine Valley. With this setting, Karlsruhe enjoys a distinctive blend of geographical and cultural influences.
The city is home to about 300,000 residents, including a substantial student population due to its well-regarded universities and research institutions as it is home to one of Germany’s oldest technical universities and Europe’s largest IT cluster. This youthful, international community brings a dynamic energy to Karlsruhe and positions it as a centre for innovation in science, technology, and sustainability, particularly in mobility, drawing from both its natural setting and openness to innovation.
The interplay of its geographical location, vibrant community, and emphasis on technological and environmental progress shapes Karlsruhe’s urban landscape, daily life and overall atmosphere, making it a prime setting for sustainable mobility innovations and CCAM developments.
The city’s transportation network is well-developed, offering a mix of public transportation, cycling infrastructure, and car-sharing options. This positions Karlsruhe as a forward-thinking hub for mobility. In recent years, parts of the tram system have been moved underground to make room for pedestrians and usable space in the city centre. However, when it comes to CCAM services, the city is still in early stages. Several foundational technologies and trials are already in place, but they have limited citizen-facing applications showcasing CCAM’s full potential.
Bridging the gap between technology and user needs for the future of mobility
Karlsruhe’s demonstration site under CulturalRoad aims to bridge the gap between citizen expectations and the practical capabilities of new CCAM applications. By engaging the community directly, the demonstration aims to gather insights into public preferences and concerns, ensuring that future mobility solutions are developed with citizens’ needs in mind.
This alignment is central to achieving the CulturalRoad vision, which prioritises citizen-centered innovation. Through real-world demonstrations, Karlsruhe showcases CCAM technologies in relatable, accessible ways, accelerating their development by integrating public feedback early in the process. This approach not only enhances trust in automated mobility but also fosters a collaborative framework where technology development and public adoption grow in tandem.
More concretely, a prototype showing next-generation CCAM applications will be built and presented to citizens at local public events to achieve this ambition objective. The feedback generated will be integrated into the intended CCAM application and tested again to validate its usefulness for the citizens, ensuring the practical and specific needs of citizens are taken into consideration.
“The iterative and engaging approach to citizen engagement, using novel methods of augmented and virtual reality, has great potential to not only accelerate the deployment of CCAM technologies but may also prove cost-effective—making it a scalable model that other cities can readily adopt. By immersing citizens in realistic CCAM scenarios, we aim to bridge the gap between technology and user needs, building trust and alignment that will be essential for widespread acceptance.” Maximilian Schrapel, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Local expertise driving innovation
The Karlsruhe demonstration leverages the expertise of our partner INIT, which plays a pivotal role as project leader and provider of integrated planning, scheduling, telematics and ticketing systems. INIT has extensive experience and access to a customer portfolio in the public transport sector, a valuable foundation for engaging citizens.
Our partner KIT also plays a vital role in the demonstration activities. The KIT Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (KIT-ITAS), connects science and technological innovation with society through expertise in transdisciplinary and real-world laboratory research. Meanwhile, the research group “Cooperative Autonomous Systems” (CAS) at the Institute for Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (KIT-CAS) is a technology expert which brings expertise in digital twins and user-centred CCAM application design, ensuring technology meets real-world needs.
