Status: 07/20/2021 4:07 p.m.
It provides webcam images and information about construction sites, electric charging stations and rest stops – the federal motorway company has presented a new app for motorists. But it has its limits.
A new service app from the state-owned motorway company is intended to provide drivers with better information about the traffic situation. Starting today, users can download the “Autobahn App” free of charge for the iOS and Android operating systems. In the morning, the company presented the app. It should not compete with Google Maps & Co., but complement these offers, it said.
Hundreds of cameras along the way
The Autobahn GmbH promises “exclusive data”. For example, users should be able to get their own picture of the traffic situation via hundreds of webcams along the motorways. For the first time, traffic and infrastructure information as well as other data relating to the motorways would be bundled. The app should also display charging stations for electric cars and truck parking spaces and provide information on whether there is a shower, a shop or WiFi at rest areas.
In addition, the app should provide better information about diversions – for example, where there are construction sites or accident sites and when they will be resolved again. In a planned, further developed version, users should have the opportunity to find out more weeks before a trip. The motorway company is the first to get the necessary information and pass it on via the app, earlier than Google Maps, for example, said Albrecht Klein, head of strategy.
No navigation possible
According to Autobahn GmbH, independent navigation to the destination should not be possible: “The Autobahn app is not a navigation app and therefore does not compete with established navigation providers.” However, the start and finish could be passed on to a navigation app on the smartphone. User-related location information should only be collected if a user wants to actively locate himself during the route check for the map view.
The FDP traffic politician Oliver Luksic said that the app offers drivers some practical advice, but provides little added value compared to existing offers. “In terms of digital and dynamic traffic control, even more should soon be possible.”
Since the turn of the year, Autobahn GmbH des Bundes has been responsible for the planning, construction, operation and maintenance of the approximately 13,000-kilometer-long motorway network in Germany instead of the federal states.