U-Shift II: A shuttle today, a delivery vehicle tomorrow
Transporting passengers in the morning, delivering packages at noon, and operating as a mobile service unit in the evening—the U-Shift II research project has further developed an automated vehicle concept that transports people, delivers goods, or provides mobile services as needed. At the heart of the project is a modular vehicle concept consisting of a driverless driveboard and interchangeable capsules.
Flexible Vehicle Functions Through Adaptive Architecture
As soon as the driveboard accommodates a new capsule, the respective functions and services required must be made available. After all, a passenger transport capsule has different requirements than a logistics or service capsule.
“Thanks to its flexible technical architecture, the vehicle can change its function depending on the application,” says Prof. Eric Sax, director of the Institute for Information Processing Technology (ITIV) at KIT.
To ensure that this transition works not only mechanically but also from an IT perspective, Prof. Eric Sax’s team at the Institute for Information Processing Technology (ITIV) developed key components of the electrical/electronic architecture, the service-oriented software architecture (SOA), and solutions for connectivity and diagnostics. These components form the basis that enables the vehicle to adapt to new tasks during operation.
Live Demonstration on the Campus East
At the closing event on June 18, 2026, the project partners presented their research findings to representatives from politics, academia, industry, and the media at the KIT Campus East.
Among the guests was Dr. Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut, Minister of Economic Affairs, Crafts, and Tourism for Baden-Württemberg, whose ministry funded the project.
Highlights included automated driving maneuvers, the switching between different capsules, and the dynamic reconfiguration of software functions during operation. Thanks to the diagnostic system developed by ITIV, guests were able to track the drive board’s internal signals live on their own smartphones.
About 40 participants watched the demonstrations and took the opportunity to engage in technical discussions with the project team. The results generated significant interest and led to numerous technical discussions.
Strong Partnership for Future Mobility
The project, coordinated by the German Aerospace Center (DLR), received ten million euros in funding from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs, Crafts, and Tourism. Project partners included the DLR, KIT (with ITIV and FAST), the University of Ulm, and FKFS Stuttgart. KIT received approximately 1.7 million euros of the funding.
The results of U-Shift II demonstrate how modular vehicle concepts can be flexibly deployed in the future for passenger transport, logistics, and services. Through its research on adaptive vehicle architecture, connectivity, and diagnostics, the ITIV has made a significant contribution to the implementation of this vision.
The video shows the U-Shift II demonstrator performing automated driving maneuvers on the KIT Campus East. The footage was captured during the project’s closing event.
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