Minister of Transport Winfried Hermann at albgut and Paravan

„New mobility“ meets tradtion.

Driving guests around the extensive and largely car-free albgut grounds in an autonomous bus - that is still a vision of the makers. But this future is within reach. Baden-Württemberg's Minister of Transport, Winfried Hermann, discussed the innovative developments in the field of new mobility and tourism with albgut Managing Director Franz Tress and Paravan Managing Director Roland Arnold. Furthermore, the two companies will cooperate in the future, with a new Paravan test track, directly in the old warehouse on the albgut premises.

"Developers and tinkerers from Baden-Württemberg invented the car and the bicycle," says Winfried Herman MdL, Minister of Transport Baden-Württemberg "and committed people are helping to ensure that mobility concepts for the future continue to come from Baden-Württemberg. In the protected test environment here on the albgut site, the technology can be intensively tested. It is important that traffic and ecological effects are examined in particular. I was impressed to what is already possible today when people with visions get together and just do it," the minister continued. He also extended an invitation to test the autonomous vehicle from the Paravan company at the recently opened test field for autonomous driving (taf-bw.de).

"albgut is intended to make it possible to experience the biosphere with a sustainable tourism concept," says Franz Tress, Managing Director of albgut GmbH. For visitors from the region, there will be family-friendly offers, for example with animals - in perspective, there will be a show farm with local farm animals - as well as sports offers, such as disc golf or an e-bike course. Already in June, the makers of the Lagerhaus an der Lauter will open a café in the royal post office in the old warehouse. Everything about sheep, from shearing to the finished garment, can be experienced at albgut. With products from the region, glass productions such as vinegar production, noodle manufacture or café roasting in the former crew quarters will follow.

The Albmalermuseum is already open with special exhibitions, and two more art houses are planned. "A car-free small town with an international audience" is Franz Tress' vision. "The guests should park their cars in a central car park later on. Traffic in the car-free area of the old warehouse is to be solved exclusively by autonomous shuttle with electric drive - 24 hours a day. Ordered via app or at the push of a button, guests will be chauffeured autonomously from their room to breakfast or to other attractions on the grounds, a kind of CLOUi-City. "We are linking the world as it was 100 years ago with the beauty of nature and a high-tech mobility solution. We want a joint development from the Swabian Alb."

"The Albgut site is ideally suited as a test track because of its small-town structure," says Paravan Managing Director Roland Arnold. The Motionboard is the first road-legal vehicle that manages entirely without a steering column. "Here, the drive-by-wire technology 'Space-Drive II' - a key technology for autonomous driving to control the accelerator, brake and steering - has been consistently further developed, equipped with the corresponding electronics and sensor technology for autonomous driving." The vehicle is used by Paravan for research purposes, to further develop its own technologies and with a focus on mobility for the disabled. "Autonomous driving will also change this area profoundly, whether it is a matter of significantly better possibilities or alternatives for locomotion in mobility for the disabled or inclusive mobility concepts," says Arnold. The area of application is diverse. The platform can be used equally well in local transport and tourism as a people mover or in industry as a cargo mover.