Chancen und Risiken für den Schienen­ verkehr durch „3A“.

Assisted, Automated and Autonomous driving dominate not only the discussions in the automotive sector but also in the industry of rail transportation. At the Institute of Rail Vehicles and Transport Systems (IFS) of RWTH Aachen University these expressions are summarized by the headword “Triple A". They describe similar items, namely the possibilities of using modern communication and information technology to relieve the driv­ ers and finally replace them. Their meaning though is totally different. In this paper a trial is made on definitions of the three mentioned expressions and on a mutual demarcation. Based on this, possibilities are discussed on which strategy - autonomous, automatic or just assisted - is to prefer for each particular rail transport means and what are the deficiencies and risks. In par­ ticular the different braking abilities and the different interfaces to other traffic participants lead to diverse proposals on how to achieve driverless or driver-assisted operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]