Autonomous Mobility: How to Make the Leap from Pilot Project to Regular Operations

Hamburg, 2 September 2026. The introduction of automated driving has made significant progress across Germany and Europe in recent months. Pilot projects have been launched in numerous cities and regions, deploying automated vehicles particularly in public transport and logistics – and demonstrating in practice how digital technologies, automation and connectivity can improve and expand mobility services. However, making the leap from individual projects to permanent regular operations requires more than proven technologies. At the Haus des Sports, around 70 mobility experts from various disciplines are discussing what practical, legally sound and transferable operating models for autonomous vehicles should look like.

Lex Mobilis is the title of the new international specialist forum, bringing together representatives of federal and state authorities, associations, research institutions, transport associations and operators, vehicle manufacturers and suppliers, technology providers, innovation centres, law firms and consultancy companies. As the name suggests, the congress focuses primarily on the legal and regulatory issues surrounding autonomous mobility. In other words, the conditions under which automated vehicles can be deployed and where, the applicable legislation, approval and authorisation processes, the standards that apply – and the steps required to enable automated vehicles to be used on a large scale in everyday life in the future.

The Lex Mobilis Congress programme includes keynote speeches, panel discussions and specialist presentations featuring high-level guests, including Hamburg’s Senator for Transport and the Mobility Transition Dr Anjes Tjarks; the President of the Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt Richard Damm; the Head of the Coordination Office for Connected and Automated Driving at the VDA Henry Kuhle; and RDir Tom Michael Gasser, Government Director from the Federal Highway and Transport Research Institute.

The starting point for the interdisciplinary discussion: thanks to intensive research and development activities over recent decades, automated driving, together with the supporting technologies for environmental perception, connectivity, data processing and control, has reached market maturity. Current pilot projects are testing use cases for highly automated vehicles that navigate independently within defined operating areas, particularly in public transport. Here, for example, autonomous scheduled services, on-demand shuttles and robotaxis can expand mobility services, open up areas that have previously been poorly connected, improve accessibility and help overcome staff shortages.

While automated driving is already seen as offering considerable potential for the transport transition, its large-scale deployment still faces a number of challenges. A clear legal framework needs to be established, approval and authorisation processes need to be harmonised, the roles and responsibilities of manufacturers, vehicle owners and operators of automated vehicles need to be defined, liability issues need to be clarified, and regulations and standards that currently differ between countries need to be harmonised across Europe. Last but not least, economically viable and practical operating models are needed in which autonomous vehicles can be meaningfully integrated into existing mobility systems – only in this way will they gain the necessary public acceptance.

“For all the issues associated with the regular operation of autonomous vehicles, meaningful solutions can only be developed when experts from different disciplines engage in dialogue,” says Steve Schneider, Manager of the Administrative Office of ITS mobility e. V., describing the idea behind the Lex Mobilis Congress. Germany’s largest competence cluster for intelligent mobility has been connecting academia and industry, associations, cities and experts around key topics in intelligent mobility for almost 30 years. It is organising the Lex Mobilis Congress together with triverra as an internationally oriented networking partner. “We want to provide impetus for thinking about autonomous mobility not merely as vehicle technology, but as an integrated system,” adds triverra Managing Director Wolfgang Höfs.

With Lex Mobilis, Hamburg is once again hosting an international mobility congress where leading experts and decision-makers actively exchange views on the future of mobility. With more than 150 ongoing projects covering digital mobility technologies, autonomous driving, connected traffic management and cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg is one of Europe’s most active testing grounds for new forms of mobility. The city is actively contributing its extensive experience from the real-world operation of digital, connected mobility solutions to the European regulatory debate, thereby setting international benchmarks.