With an increasing world population and a steadily rising share of people living in urban areas, traffic density is on the rise, and has become a major issue of urban agglomerations all over the world. These trends are accompanied by the process of the motorization of the individual - with negative effects on both, the society and the individual. While millions of people get injured and die in traffic accidents each year, congestion causes mental stress and economic inefficiencies. Different solutions seek to tackle the problem like strengthening of public transport or encouraging residents to walk or make use of bicycles. However, they have yet failed to combine, for example, individual mobility needs and infrastructural conditions. In order to contribute to the debate of possible solutions, this study investigates the combination of two emerging concepts, carsharing and driverless vehicles. Germany was chosen as the basis of this study for its strong position in the car industry.

Master's Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Economy - Transport Economics, grade: 80%, , course: Politics, Global Issues, Sustainability, Traffic Management, language: English, abstract: The prefeasibility study at hand proposes to integrate driverless vehicles in commercial carsharing schemes in Germany. It finds indications that carsharing has the potential to become a significant mode of transport because it responds to social and business change. On the other hand, the study shows that it is the human component in traffic causing the majority of accidents, which is why driverless vehicles are expected to reduce traffic accidents and improve road safety. By making use of the business management tools SWOT analysis and an ad hoc STEPLED analysis, the study conducts a micro-environmental and macro-environmental analysis of the German carmakers BMW and Daimler in regard to the proposed concept. The main finding is that the technology is generally expected to be marketable within the next two decades, if not much earlier. It can be expected that customers will accept driverless vehicle technologies and that many new target groups could be reached by the realisation of the concept. Carmakers should benefit from this potential and might be able to offset possible losses in their core business. The analysis does also show, however, that the current legislation poses several obstacles and might, if unchanged, delay the introduction of driverless vehicle technologies. It is recommended for carmakers to become active and start a public debate similar to the one in the United States. Moreover, it is recommended to collaborate closely with other mobility providers in order to avoid lobbying against the idea.

The main topic of this book is the introduction of a new mobility service: One-Way and Open-End car-sharing. Dr. Bodo Schwieger describes a process starting from the anticipation and measurement of customer's needs to the introduction of innovative services. The described field test is second to none, as it offers gasoline vehicles in a One-Way rental scheme within an urban environment: 25 Smart vehicles were based at 8 stations and available to 4,000 car-sharing customers. This service is being analyzed for efficiency and customer reactions. In a second step, other car-sharing companies in Hamburg (Germany), Seattle (Washington), Kyoto and Tokyo (Japan) are analyzed for their approaches to improving their services. combines technological competence, marketing know-how and customer analysis. Car-sharing has recently become a highly relevant topic with the fast expansion of the American providers and the market entry of Deutsche Bahn AG and Shell AG in Germany. The method respects the large amount of interdependence with other services and also the multiplicity of different customer groups. Thus it can be transferred to other (transportation) services - and used as a beginner's guide to service analysis. The book is based on the author's dissertation, which was accepted at the Technical University of Berlin in 2003. It delivers, on 150 pages, densely accumulated information. It is worth reading for anyone who is involved in introducing and developing new services, either within transportation or in related branches.

Containing research from the 25th edition of the Urban Transport conference, the papers included in this book address the need to solve important pollution problems associated with urban transport. There is also a growing need for integration with telecommunications systems and IT applications in order to improve safety, security and efficiency.