Braunschweig autonomous vehicle tour: Podcast guide

Walk the streets where autonomous vehicles learn to navigate a real city

A self-guided podcast tour of Braunschweig covering 3.9 km and six stops over roughly two hours, following audio narration by city planners and mobility experts as they explain how the city functions as a testing ground for autonomous vehicles and sustainable urban design. The app provides navigation between stops and an AI guide to answer questions about the sites and their history.

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Braunschweig's urban mobility

• Visit TU Braunschweig data center
• Explore the House of Science
• See the architectural hub
• Observe the busy tram hub
• Walk along historical riverbanks
• Discover converted industrial railway line

The experience

Braunschweig has turned itself into an open-air laboratory for urban mobility, and this tour walks you through the infrastructure that makes it work. You start at the computational heart of TU Braunschweig, where servers process the data streams that feed into the city's smart infrastructure, then move through the House of Science (a bridge between research labs and public conversation), and into an architectural hub where the physical design of future cities gets debated in real time. The podcast narration ties these stops together, explaining what you're looking at and why it matters to the vehicles being tested on these same streets.

The route takes you past a tram hub that doubles as a living laboratory for railway technology, along the historical riverbanks that show how green-blue infrastructure supports climate resilience, and ends at a converted industrial railway line now designed around human-centered, sustainable mobility. You navigate point-to-point using the app, which also lets you ask an AI guide questions about the history and context of what surrounds you. The whole walk runs roughly two hours at a pace you set yourself, with the podcast experts and locals doing the explaining as you move.

This is not a traditional sightseeing tour: you're reading the city as a text, with the audio helping you decode what would otherwise look like ordinary streets and buildings. The tour suits anyone curious about how cities actually work (the infrastructure, the data, the design choices) rather than the landmarks tourists usually photograph.

What’s included

• Podcast-style audio narration in English or German delivered by city planners and mobility experts.
• interactive AI guide accessible through the app to answer questions about history and surroundings.
• point-to-point navigation between all six stops.
• verified facts woven into the tour narrative.

Before you book

Days and timesEvery day

AgesAdult (13 and older) · Under 13: can't be booked

Audio guideEnglish and German

Meeting point and pickupNo hotel pickup: you go to the meeting point. Ends at a different place from where it starts.

Cancellation and refundsFree cancellation up to 24 h before the start. After that, no refund.

Prices and times updated 12 days ago

Good to know

Low physical effortPets welcomePublic transport nearby

Operated by Red Thread

Is this one for you?The self-guided format means you walk at your own pace and pause whenever something catches your attention, so it works well if you want to linger at particular stops or move quickly through others: unlike a group tour locked to one schedule. The minimum age is 13, and the audio guide is available in English and German.

Top questions

What exactly is the TU Braunschweig computational hub, and what does it do?

TU Braunschweig's computational center processes the massive amounts of data that feed the city's smart infrastructure systems, making it the technical backbone of Braunschweig's autonomous vehicle testing environment.

How long does the walk take, and can I do it at my own pace?

The tour covers 3.9 km over roughly two hours, and you control the pace entirely. You navigate between the six stops using the app and can spend as much or as little time at each one as you want.

What is the House of Science, and why is it on this route?

The House of Science functions as a bridge between cutting-edge research happening in labs and public conversation about that research, making it a key site for understanding how Braunschweig connects innovation to the wider community.

Does the app guide actually answer questions, or is it just directions?

The app includes an AI guide that answers questions about the history and context of the sites and surroundings you encounter, so you can dig deeper into what you're seeing beyond what the podcast narration covers.

Is this tour suitable if I'm not particularly fit or if I have mobility concerns?

The tour is suitable for all physical fitness levels, though it does involve walking 3.9 km over two hours. Public transportation options are available nearby if you need to rest or skip sections.