Automated Mobility: UITP in Open Discussion with French Parliamentarian Damien Pichereau

Automated Vehicles (AVs) have the potential to offer immense benefits and act as a game changer to the urban mobility sphere.

However, this will only be the case if they are fully integrated into existing public transport networks and used as shared mobility.

This was the key point made by us here at UITP upon meeting Damien Pichereau, a Member of the French National Assembly, in a virtual meeting on 11 May.

Mr. Pichereau has been set a parliamentary mission to research the potential benefits automated and connected mobility can bring. His key role involves discovering how Europe can collaborate to lead in this area.

Here at UITP we were of course delighted to take the opportunity to meet with Mr. Pichereau and share our vision on this important topic.

Let us look in more detail on this!

Currently, the main use cases for shared automated vehicles see links between private homes and public transport hubs. These cases show the usefulness of AVs complementing existing public transport services. This is especially useful for people with reduced mobility or areas with less public transport coverage.

In the future, UITP would therefore like to see the consideration of automated buses enabling mass transportation. This will have a concrete impact on congestion, emissions reduction, and service improvement for the end customer.

On collaborating at European level, we mentioned the Connected Cooperative and Autonomous Mobility (CCAM) partnership.

This partnership aims to harmonise European R&I efforts to accelerate the implementation of innovative technologies and services.

We explained to Mr. Pichereau that UITP is involved in discussions that relate to large-scale demonstrations, system integration and societal matters.

UITP is also a member of newly created CCAM Association, in which we are proud to represent the interests of our members. However, Public Transport Authorities, Public Transport Operators as well as municipalities are encouraged to join this association to ensure that the voice of public transport is well heard.

In presenting our future vision, we were also proud to highlight the SHOW Project, coordinated by UITP and funded by the European Commission (GA Nr. 875530).

The SHOW Project aims to be the largest automated vehicle demonstration initiative in Europe.

With its large consortium of 69 partners, public transport authorities, operators, technology suppliers and OEMs work together on the definition of business cases and suitable services for citizens, which strongly consolidates the European landscape of Connected Cooperative Automated Mobility.

As envisioned in SHOW, for future demonstration of automated shared mobility, UITP recommends to:

• Consider a system integration and not solely focus on vehicle development. The digital and physical infrastructure, control centres, telecommunications are also in need of development;
• Test fleets of autonomous vehicles over long periods of time to ensure the integration of transport services into the daily lives of populations;
• Involve cities and municipalities in discussions and create links with new players in mobility and emerging technologies.

We were very happy to have the opportunity to discuss this exciting topic with Mr. Pichereau.

Let’s ensure autonomous vehicles work for everyone!

You can see the UITP Policy Brief on Autonomous Vehicles here.

More on the SHOW Project here.

And see more on the CCAM Association here.