Once again, highQ is playing a major role in an innovation research project. On 15 May 2019, the BMBF approved the research and development project “User-centred Mobility-as-a-Service Platform: Living, Automated, Demand- & Sharing-oriented”, known under its German acronym as MaaS L.A.B.S.

The aim is to develop innovative, digitally supported mobility services in Potsdam, Cottbus and Hanover. MaaS L.A.B.S. will shape traffic transformation through flexible and demand-oriented public transport, which will add automated microbuses to its high-performance offering and combine it with new car, bike and ride-sharing services. This ecological, cost-effective, social and city-friendly transformation of our mobility system is developing solutions that address the challenges of climate change, air pollution and traffic congestion. The innovative offers are founded on the changing values of the urban population and shifts in mobility behaviour that are already perceptible today.

Drawn from the social sciences, engineering and economics, the interdisciplinary MaaS L.A.B.S project team is placing road users at the heart of its development work and aims to test technologies and business models step by step to avoid planning errors. There are four interlinked services:

• An app informs city residents about integrated mobility offers (public transport and sharing offers) and facilitates mobility planning and billing
• Intelligent sharing services complement public transport to create an attractive overall service that is capable of competing with private cars
• Automated microbuses pick people up at their doorstep and thereby improve the accessibility of large residential areas
• Control systems ensure the seamless operation of this integrated transport system, which responds in real time to current passenger demand

For the first time, the MaaS L.A.B.S. system is looking in greater depth at the specific requirements of small- and medium-sized cities within the framework of research and development. In the cities of Potsdam, Cottbus and Hanover, “living labs” are being set up in which offers are developed in active dialogue with the population, urban development, transport planning and politics. Extensive demonstrations make the various technologies tangible and shape technology and process development by means of step-by-step feedback processes.

The research and development project is being funded by the BMBF for four years (15.5.2019-14.05.2023) in the funding line “Individual and adaptive technologies for networked mobility”. The total funding volume of the project amounts to around 5 million euros. The project consortium consists of three universities (TH Wildau, University of Siegen, FH Potsdam), three public transport companies (VIP Potsdam, Üstra Hannover, Cottbusverkehr) and five private-sector providers of data-based mobility infrastructure ranging from app development to sharing and hardware offerings.

Project partners:

• Technische Hochschule Wildau
• Universität Siegen
• Fachhochschule Potsdam
• ASEW-Stadtwerke-Netzwerk
• Cottbusverkehr
• Getaway
• GHM Mobile Development GmbH
• highQ Computerlösungen GmbH
• IVU Traffic Technologies AG
• üstra Hannoversche Verkehrsbetriebe AG
• ViP Verkehrsbetriebe Potsdam