What does the future of mobility look like? At MIRA, it is already becoming reality. Together with Rheinbahn and Düsseldorf Airport, we are launching a two-month pilot project that brings teleoperated shuttle vehicles into real-world public road operations.

The initiative marks another important milestone in demonstrating how teleoperation can help shape the future of safe, efficient, and highly automated mobility.

From Innovation to Everyday Operations

Teleoperation is one of the key enabling technologies for next-generation mobility. While automated driving systems continue to evolve, there are still situations where human judgment, experience, and decision-making remain essential.

This is where teleoperation comes in. Specially trained remote drivers can safely monitor and operate vehicles from a dedicated control center whenever required, combining human intelligence with advanced vehicle automation.

With this pilot at Düsseldorf Airport, MIRA is bringing this technology into one of the most demanding real-world environments.

A Challenging Test Environment

The area surrounding Düsseldorf Airport provides ideal conditions for evaluating teleoperated mobility. High traffic volumes, complex transportation flows, and the interaction of many different road users create an excellent environment for testing future mobility solutions.

The shuttle service operates between the airport railway station and the terminal area. Vehicles are remotely operated from MIRA's control center located at the EUREF Campus Düsseldorf. Throughout the pilot, a trained safety operator remains inside the vehicle and can immediately take control whenever necessary.

Safety remains the project's highest priority at every stage of operation.

Strong Partnerships Driving Innovation

The pilot project brings together the expertise of Rheinbahn, Düsseldorf Airport, and MIRA with one common objective: to evaluate teleoperated mobility under real operating conditions and gain valuable insights into its future role in public transportation.

Among the key questions the project aims to answer are:

  • How seamlessly can teleoperation integrate into existing transportation networks?
  • How reliable is the overall system during daily operation?
  • What value can teleoperation create for public transportation providers?
  • How do passengers and professional drivers experience this new technology?

Teleoperation: An Enabler for Future Mobility

Public transportation providers around the world face increasing driver shortages while demand for reliable mobility continues to grow.

Teleoperation offers a practical solution by enabling operators to deploy skilled drivers more flexibly while maintaining high safety standards. At the same time, it serves as an important bridge toward higher levels of vehicle automation by ensuring that human expertise is available whenever it is needed.

For MIRA, teleoperation is far more than a new technology—it is a key enabler for the future of mobility, combining the strengths of human intelligence with the capabilities of highly automated vehicles.

More Than Four Years of Public-Road Experience

As a Rheinmetall company, MIRA develops teleoperation technologies for public-road and industrial vehicle applications. For more than four years, our teleoperated vehicles have been operating safely and reliably on public roads, providing valuable operational experience under real-world conditions.

These insights continuously shape the development of our technology—from control center software and vehicle connectivity to cybersecurity, system availability, and user experience.

The Düsseldorf Airport pilot represents another significant milestone in bringing teleoperation closer to widespread deployment across public transportation, logistics, and many other mobility applications.

Research Supporting the Mobility of Tomorrow

The pilot project is part of the PoQuaSIA research initiative, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy within the European 8ra Initiative.

Together with our project partners, we are developing a secure, high-performance digital infrastructure for safety-critical applications such as vehicle teleoperation.

Every mile driven during this pilot helps generate valuable insights that will shape the next generation of connected, automated mobility.

At MIRA, we believe the future of mobility is not something to wait for - it is something we are building today.