Automation and digitization pose challenges for society as a whole. Mobility and transportation will undergo significant changes in the coming decades. Companies are already working to prepare for automated mobility (AM) in the future.
As part of the research and development project “AM inklusive!” commissioned by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology (BMK), , perspectives, scenarios, and recommendations were developed on how automated mobility should be promoted and guided in the coming years within Austrian transportation policy as well as research, technology, and innovation (RTI) policy, with a focus on equal opportunity and inclusion. This report is intended to serve as a knowledge base and foundation for discussion, enabling the assessment of opportunities and risks.
When it comes to inclusion, automated mobility has the potential to improve—or even enable for the first time—the independent mobility of people with disabilities. However, this is true only if the prerequisites for using various services—which are often taken for granted—are carefully considered and adapted to a wider range of usage scenarios.
In this report, “Automated Mobility (AM)” refers to the increasing integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) into the mobility sector. However, ICT is not only used in the automotive sector itself, but across all areas of transportation and mobility, in infrastructure, and in the management of mobility-related processes (pre-, on-, and post-trip).
For AM Inclusive! we worked very closely with people with disabilities. People with disabilities are not inherently disabled by their personal, physical condition; rather, they are only hindered when confronted with specific environments—for example, by architectural barriers or the lack of accessible information resources. Therefore, the focus was placed on environmental barriers, and the causes of what hinders them in leading self-determined lives were examined. This deliberate shift in perspective enables a better understanding of accessibility and inclusion. We collaborated with people with disabilities in information and feedback sessions. In addition, the experiences and opinions of people with and without disabilities on the topics of inclusion and AM were collected via an online questionnaire. The project and its interim results were also discussed in the form of “future conferences” with a broad audience of experts from the transportation, mobility, and technology sectors. To incorporate as many perspectives as possible into the project, a committee comprising two external experts and one representative from the commissioning agency (BMK) was established.
Suggested citation:
Knoll, Bente; Hofleitner, Birgit; Feßler, Anne Katrin; Hauger, Georg; Fian, Tabea; Adensam, Nadine et al. (2021): Automated Mobility for All! Edited by the Federal Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation, and Technology (BMK). Available online at https://www.b-nk.at/bericht-automatisierte-mobilitaet-inklusive/, last accessed on July 14, 2026.