Taxis without drivers: Munich's largest taxi firm plans up to 500 autonomous cars
Münchner Taxi Zentrum and US developer Tensor have signed a letter of intent. Taxi operators would keep control of the fleet – but Level 4 approval in Germany is still needed.
Symbolic image · Photo: User:Mattes / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain (cropped and resized)
Münchner Taxi Zentrum (MTZ), Munich's largest taxi operator, wants to bring autonomous vehicles to German cities. It has signed a letter of intent with Silicon Valley company Tensor covering up to 500 so-called Robocars. The plans are conditional: final agreements and German approval for Level 4 autonomous driving are still required. At that level, the car drives itself without a human at the wheel within defined areas.
Unlike many robotaxi services, the taxi operator would stay in charge: MTZ would run the fleet under its own brand and keep its customer data, with rides booked through its existing dispatch system. Tensor sells the vehicles and offers its driving software and fleet management as a subscription, while financial institutions are to fund the fleets. Tensor says the car was built from the ground up as an autonomous vehicle, cleans its own sensors and responds to spoken requests such as adding a stop.
Further ahead, the partners aim to place another 10,000 vehicles with taxi and fleet operators within 24 months of the car becoming available in Europe. According to the companies, Germany has about 50,000 taxis and Europe about 500,000. MTZ chief executive Gregor Beiner also chairs an alliance of taxi firms from six countries. He stressed that drivers remain important wherever personal service, support or human closeness are needed.