Empty Cab Since Day One: Copenhagen Metro Has Run Driverless Since 2002
Did you know Denmark's capital opened a fully automated metro on 19 October 2002 with nobody in the driver's cab, and that those trains have run at Grade of Automation 4 ever since?
Sam Okonkwo, Robotaxi · Sept. 29, 2026 · 3-4 min
COPENHAGEN - Did you know Denmark's capital opened a fully automated metro on 19 October 2002 with nobody in the driver's cab, and that those trains have run at Grade of Automation 4 ever since?
Metroselskabet, marking the network's 20th anniversary in 2022, said the Metro opened on 19 October 2002 with services between Nørreport and Vestamager on M1 and between Nørreport and Lergravsparken on M2. Both lines were fully automated from day one. In 2009 the system began running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The City Circle M3 opened in 2019, and M4 Nordhavn followed in 2020.
That empty cab is the curiosity peg. Copenhagen's M1 and M2 have operated with GoA4 signaling since opening: fully automated, with no driver on board. That is a step beyond staffed GoA3 systems such as London's Docklands Light Railway, where a passenger service agent still rides every train. Metroselskabet notes that when the lines opened, the system was among the first of its kind in the world.
At the 20-year mark, Metroselskabet said the Metro had moved over a billion passengers, with more than 300,000 daily passengers and more than two million journeys in a typical week. The company is now planning its largest reinvestment to date: a new CBTC signaling system and replacement trains on M1 and M2 by 2035. The new system, it says, will also support driverless operation.
Long before robotaxis sold empty-cab rides on city streets, Copenhageners were already boarding trains with glass at the front and nobody at a wheel. The curiosity is not that metros can run without a driver. It is that this one has done it in public, empty-cab GoA4, since the autumn of 2002.
Sources
Sam Okonkwo, Robotaxi. Sam Okonkwo is a senior correspondent covering robotaxis, fleet ops, and paid driverless service. Previously reported transport tech for trade titles; based in Austin.
