Robotaxis in Germany: why the topic is picking up speed now
Mention robotaxis in the US and the conversation almost always turns to Tesla. Elon Musk's promises of a standalone robotaxi service have generated headlines for years, and Waymo has already become part of everyday life in several American cities. Anyone following that debate from a distance could easily assume Germany is lagging behind on autonomous driving. The reality is the opposite: since May 2025, real passengers, riding free of charge as registered test users, in the Rhine-Main region around Frankfurt have been riding in vehicles approved for Level 4 operation, meaning they can drive largely without human intervention. The project is called KIRA, a joint effort between the regional transit authority Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund and Deutsche Bahn, Germany's national railway operator.
For anyone interested in electric vehicles, this is relevant for more than one reason. First, KIRA illustrates how closely autonomous driving and electric mobility are now intertwined: almost every serious robotaxi project worldwide runs exclusively on battery-electric vehicles. Second, a growing robotaxi fleet raises an obvious follow-up question: how do you keep vehicles like this charged around the clock, and what does that mean for charging infrastructure, a topic that is naturally close to our hearts at chargemap24.com. Before diving into the details, it's worth understanding the legal backdrop, because Germany has had a dedicated federal law on autonomous driving on the books since 2021, and it is precisely that law which makes pilot programs like KIRA possible in the first place.
The KIRA project: Germany's Level 4 pioneer in detail
In his video, German YouTuber Sebastian Henßler visits the KIRA project on site, takes a ride himself, and interviews project lead Thorsten Möginger. Together, that gives a detailed picture of what a regulated Level 4 pilot actually looks like in Germany today, and why it differs so clearly from the American robotaxi model.
Legal foundation: the AFGBV
KIRA operates under Germany's Autonomous Vehicle Approval and Operation Regulation, known by its German acronym AFGBV. It is the detailed implementation of Germany's broader federal law on autonomous driving and spells out the exact conditions a company must meet to receive a permit for operating Level 4 vehicles on public roads. KIRA holds a permit under Section 16 of the AFGBV, which allows operation within a clearly defined service area under continuous remote monitoring. In Germany, this legal path is notably more centralized than the state-by-state patchwork familiar from the US. It's worth noting that the permit is tied to a specific geographic zone and to specific technical requirements, so a nationwide rollout is not on the table yet. Any expansion of the service area, say into additional neighborhoods or towns, requires a fresh application that the responsible authority has to review individually.
The technology behind KIRA: NIO ES8 and Mobileye Drive
The fleet was originally built on six electric NIO ES8 SUVs equipped with the Mobileye Drive autonomous driving system, and was expanded to eight vehicles in spring 2026 to cover extended, commuter-friendly operating hours. A defining feature is triple sensor redundancy across cameras, radar and lidar, so that if one sensor type struggles in poor conditions, the others can cover for it. That combination of multiple sensor technologies isn't a German quirk, it's the standard approach among virtually every credible Level 4 system worldwide, including the ones behind Waymo's robotaxis. For more on how this works, see our piece on lidar, radar and camera sensor fusion. Here's a quick rundown of the vehicles in service:
- Vehicle model: NIO ES8, fully electric
- Pilot fleet size: eight vehicles (expanded from an initial six in 2026)
- Range: roughly 250 miles (400 km) per charge
- Top speed: up to 80 mph (130 km/h)
- Autonomy system: Mobileye Drive with camera, radar and lidar redundancy
- Approval level: Level 4 under Section 16 of the AFGBV
Where and how to ride
The service area covers the Rhine-Main region: the city of Darmstadt, including its main train station, the Nord district and the Johannesviertel neighborhood, plus the towns of Langen and Egelsbach in the surrounding Offenbach district. There are no fixed routes and no traditional timetable, rides are booked flexibly through the KIRA app, built on booking technology from ioki, Deutsche Bahn's mobility-on-demand subsidiary. The concept is closer to an on-demand shuttle than a traditional taxi, except that, at least technically, no one is actively steering. In practice, a ride currently unfolds like this:
- Request a ride in the KIRA app, entering a pickup and drop-off point within the service area
- The app assigns an available KIRA vehicle and shows an estimated arrival time
- Board at the pickup point and get a greeting from the onboard safety attendant
- The vehicle drives in Level 4 mode, with the attendant stepping in only in an emergency
- Arrival at the destination, as long as it's within the defined service area
- Riders can leave feedback about the trip directly in the app
Funding, partners and goals
KIRA is funded with roughly 2.2 million euros from Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport (formerly the Federal Ministry for Digital and Transport) and the state of Hesse. The stated goal isn't a fast commercial rollout, it's proving that Level 4 technology can be deployed reliably within public transit and establishing industry standards that later projects can build on. That sets the German approach apart from purely commercial robotaxi ventures, a contrast worth exploring further in our look at Tesla's Full Self-Driving. Where Tesla is building a closed, proprietary vehicle and software ecosystem, KIRA was designed from day one as a complement to public transit, not a competitor to it.
What comes after the pilot phase?
KIRA is a pilot project, not a finished product, which is exactly what makes the road ahead interesting. The details from the video point to a few developments likely to matter over the next few years.
The safety attendant: a transition with an expiration date
For now, a safety attendant still rides along in every vehicle. That's typical for the testing phase of a system that's already legally classified as a robotaxi in the broader sense, but still needs technical and regulatory oversight in practice. The logical next step would be removing that attendant within the existing service area, once enough operating data and safety evidence has accumulated. It's too early to put a firm date on that step, it will largely come down to how quickly regulators build confidence in the data gathered during the first months of real-world operation.
Germany and the US: two paths to the robotaxi
Germany's head start on formal Level 4 approvals traces directly back to its early federal law on autonomous driving, passed in 2021. In the US, individual states and cities set very different rules for operators like Waymo or Tesla's robotaxi service, whereas Germany established a unified nationwide legal framework early on, within which individual projects like KIRA then receive regional approval. The German path is more firmly rooted in public transit and less centered on a single private robotaxi company, a model that differs fundamentally from the US approach and could well end up as an export model for the rest of Europe.
Robotaxi fleets and the charging infrastructure of tomorrow
For chargemap24.com readers, one detail stands out: all eight KIRA vehicles are fully electric, and every growing robotaxi fleet needs dependable charging support running quietly in the background. Unlike private EVs that typically charge overnight at home, fleet vehicles need to charge efficiently and predictably between rides, ideally without long downtime. That's exactly where concepts like autonomous valet charging, where the vehicle drives itself to a charger, come in: instead of a human shuttling the car to the nearest charging point between passengers, the system itself could eventually decide when and where to top up, based on real-time demand across the service area. As more of these fleets appear in cities on both sides of the Atlantic, the case for dedicated robotaxi charging infrastructure, sized very differently than typical public chargers built for private cars, will only get stronger.
Taken together, KIRA shows that Germany isn't simply watching the robotaxi race from the sidelines, it has its own regulator-backed model already running in real-world conditions. Whether this publicly anchored approach ultimately wins out over privately run robotaxi models, or the two continue to coexist, will become clearer over the next few years as the Rhine-Main pilot matures into concrete industry standards.
Additional Video
While Germany's public-sector pilots like KIRA focus on transit integration, this video dives into the commercial side: the Uber, Autobrains, and NVIDIA partnership bringing Level 4 robotaxis to Munich's streets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is KIRA already a true driverless robotaxi?
Technically, KIRA operates at Level 4, meaning it drives largely on its own. For now, though, a safety attendant still rides along and can step in during an emergency. Fully driverless operation with no one on board hasn't been reached yet.
Where can I actually ride in a KIRA vehicle?
The service area covers the Rhine-Main region, specifically Darmstadt along with Langen and Egelsbach in the Offenbach district. Rides are booked on demand, without fixed routes, through the KIRA app.
What law allows robotaxi pilots to operate in Germany?
The legal basis is Germany's federal law on autonomous driving from 2021, together with the Autonomous Vehicle Approval and Operation Regulation, known as the AFGBV. KIRA runs its vehicles under a permit granted through Section 16 of that regulation.
Why are robotaxis almost always electric?
Electric vehicles are easier to integrate with the extra sensors and onboard computing an autonomous system needs, and they offer more predictable running costs at fleet scale. KIRA follows that pattern too, relying entirely on fully electric NIO ES8s.
