German railway company Deutsche Bahn collaborated with industrial group Siemens on Monday to unveil the world's first automated driverless train in Hamburg, claiming to be more punctual and energy-efficient compared to traditional man-driven ones.
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Reported first by AFP, the railway company will be running four such trains on its S-Bahn rapid urban rail network and will start carrying passengers starting December and will run on the existing rail lines.?
While Paris does have a driverless metro network and several airports use driverless monorail shuttles, HamburgĄ¯s driverless train will be the first sharing tracks with other regular trains as opposed to the former running on their own dedicated tracks.?
This automated railway service is a part of the 60 million euro project by Siemens and Deutsche Bahn for the modernization of HamburgĄ¯s rapid urban rail system.?
The train, even though is fully automated and doesnĄ¯t require any human intervention while its moving, itĄ¯ll still be accompanied by a human driver whenever there are passengers on board, according to Deutsche Bahn and Siemens in a statement.
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According to Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz said, the automated trains would offer a more reliable service without the need to lay out even a single kilometre of a new track, improving efficiency without adding too many costs.
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Siemens CEO Roland Busch added, "We are making rail transport more intelligent," while also estimating that automated trains can transport "up to 30 percent more passengers, significantly improve punctuality and save more than 30 percent energy".
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