Dear Robert,
thank you for your thoughtful summary. I think you captured the situation very well, and from our side at Fraunhofer FOKUS we fully understand and support the proposal.
The openMobility Group has been a valuable platform for exchange and collaboration over the years, and we are grateful to have been part of it with Eclipse MOSAIC.
On a personal note, I would like to thank you and the DLR team for all the work you put into organizing and sustaining the group over the years. We truly appreciated the community and
the interesting discussions.
Best regards,
Robert
--
Dr. Robert Protzmann
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS
Business Unit Smart Mobility
Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31, 10589 Berlin, Germany
Phone +49 30 3463 7289
robert.protzmann@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.fokus.fraunhofer.de
Fraunhofer FOKUS operates as a legally dependent entity of
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e. V.,
Hansastrasse 27 c, 80686 Munich, Germany.
Register of associations: Amtsgericht (local court) of Munich, VR 4461
Authorized recipient: Holger Hanselka (president)
Von: openmobility <openmobility-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Im Auftrag von Robert Hilbrich via openmobility
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 29. Juli 2026 10:48
An: openmobility-sc@xxxxxxxxxxx; openmobility@xxxxxxxxxxx
Cc: Robert.Hilbrich@xxxxxx
Betreff: [openMobility] Proposal to conclude the openMobility Interest Group
Dear openMobility community,
Over the past year, we have had several discussions about the future of the openMobility Interest Group, both in bilateral conversations and most recently during the SUMO User Conference 2026 in June.
When we look back at the past few years, we believe that the Interest Group, which originally started as a Working Group, has successfully served its purpose. It brought together people from different projects in the
mobility domain, established valuable connections, and created opportunities for technical exchange. We would like to sincerely thank everyone who contributed to the group, participated in our meetings, and shared ideas and experiences.
At the same time, it has become clear that some of the initiatives we hoped to realize together, such as a joint publication on demand modelling or a collaborative publicly funded research project, have unfortunately
not materialized. This is also reflected in the decreasing activity on the mailing list. In addition, several key contacts who connected the group to projects beyond the SUMO ecosystem have since moved on to other organizations.
The current economic climate also requires organizations to focus their efforts more carefully. This is true for us at DLR as well, and – unfortunately – we also need to concentrate our community activities where they
have the greatest impact.
For these reasons, we would like to propose formally concluding the openMobility Interest Group. In practice, this transition has already been happening since the beginning of this year, with discussions that have a strong
SUMO focus taking place during the bi-weekly SUMO Developer Meetings listed on the SUMO website.
This proposal is not new. It has been discussed on several occasions in the past and was also part of the discussions during the SUMO User Conference 2026.
Of course, if someone in the community has a different vision for the future of openMobility and is willing to take over the role of Chair and drive the group forward, we would be very happy to support such an initiative.
At the present time, however, we do not see a sustainable alternative ourselves.
Thank you once again for your engagement, the many interesting discussions, and your contributions over the years. We hope to continue meeting many of you in the SUMO community and at future conferences.
Best regards,
Robert Hilbrich
————————————————————————
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-
und Raumfahrt
e. V. (DLR)
German Aerospace Center
Institute of Transportation Systems | Technologies for Transport- and Mobility
Management | Rutherfordstr. 2
|
12489 Berlin
| Germany
Dr.
Robert Hilbrich |
Team lead
Telefon +49 30 67055-582 |
robert.hilbrich@xxxxxx
DLR.de
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Head of DLR's legal department, Linder Hoehe, 51147 Cologne, can provide information (DLR.de/imprint).