German Mobility Award: Rural public transport, autonomous driving, zero-emission boats, and city cycling

At the Federal Government’s Digital Summit in Frankfurt am Main, the five award winners of the German Mobility Award 2024 were announced today. For the ninth time, the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport (BMDV) recognized innovative projects that rethink and shape the future of mobility.

“This year’s award winners impressively demonstrate how the mobility of the future can be designed. From innovative solutions to support blind and visually impaired people to connected mobility systems that make public transport more efficient, and autonomous, emission-free transport options on water – the variety of ideas shows how sustainable and future-oriented mobility can be. Additionally, new concepts in local transport, especially in rural areas, set new standards for flexible and accessible mobility for everyone,” explained Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing.

The winners of the ninth German Mobility Award are:

• The project SmartAIs was honored in the category Digital Transformation & AI for its obstacle detection app. This app helps blind and visually impaired individuals move more safely in urban areas, thus enabling improved, barrier-free mobility.
• In the category New Mobility Solutions, the award went to NeMo.bil. The project uses autonomous and digitally networked vehicles for public demand-responsive transport, offering a new form of sustainable and demand-oriented passenger and goods transport in rural areas.
• UNLEASH FUTURE BOATS received the award in the Design category for its autonomous, emission-free boats. This innovation enables eco-friendly transport of people and goods on water and sets a strong example for sustainable mobility.
• The project SMILE24 was honored in the category Practical Examples for the most extensive local public transport offering in rural Germany. With a flexible, accessible local transport service, SMILE24 brings mobility to remote regions, making an important contribution to the mobility transition in rural areas.

The awarding of the audience prize, which had been eagerly anticipated, was also decided via live voting since October 20 at 12:30 PM. Mobility enthusiasts on-site and via livestream chose their favorites for the audience prize from all projects on the shortlist. The most votes were received by the Project MoveOn. MoveOn uses and analyzes cycling data from more than 475,000 participants in the “City Cycling” campaign and makes it available to municipalities for traffic planning.