Means of Transport Department
With its application-oriented research, the Department of Means of Transport supports the transformation of the transport sector with solutions and design ideas for sustainable, demand-oriented and efficient means of transport on roads, railways and waterways while providing scientifically sound recommendations for action to partners from business, politics and society.
Based on a user-centric approach, we show approaches for developing more attractive and demand-oriented sustainable means of transport and integrating them into the transport system. We analyse the needs of users and society, assess technology trends and develop and test new, inclusive mobility solutions with our partners. A key focus here is on automated and connected means of transport as a building block in an environment-friendly and modern transport system. We provide precise insights into the acceptance conditions of automated transport and derive well-founded future forecasts based on empirical data and transport models. We analyse proposed operational concepts for automated driving and identify new and value-adding use cases. In addition to automation, the switch to more sustainable propulsion technologies is a key element in the transformation of the transport system. We are contributing to the decarbonisation of the transport sector with research into alternative drive systems and renewable energy. To this end, we analyse model-based scenarios for the market roll-out of new drive technologies. Based on these scenarios, we systematically identify charging infrastructure requirements and analyse the potential of sector integration, for example in the area of bidirectional charging. Using empirical survey formats, we analyse and forecast the behaviour of users and deduce specific requirements for transformation technologies.