The Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund RMV transport association at the VDV Annual Conference - VDV Vice President and RMV Managing Director Prof Knut Ringat - 'That's why we want to test autonomous vehicles in regular operation in two regions for the first time next year'

The plan is for the first vehicles in autonomous Level 4 to drive through Darmstadt and the Offenbach district throughout Germany.

It is planned that the first vehicles in Germany will drive through Darmstadt and the district of Offenbach in autonomous Level 4. The model function for the nationwide introduction of on-demand offers through the RMV projects is also so great because the project includes the city of Frankfurt, districts on the outskirts of the metropolis and rural districts, the complete diversity of settlement structures in Germany.

more at vdv dot de

curb delivery acceptance by consumers is still an unknown states recent study by Harvard Kennedy School.

RESERVATION
When can I begin to pilot the Transporter?

Limited pilot production quantities will be available in Q4, 2022 with pilot deliveries set to begin early Q1, 2023.

udelv dot com/faqs/

project website details
storymaps dot arcgis dot com/stories/67f751b5e5b54db092ea7af3f1837699

In an upcoming pilot project between
Ruter, the public transport provider of the Oslo region, Holo, the leading implementer of AVs in the Nordics, and Mobileye, we will supply Level 4 self-driving vehicles equipped with the necessary software solutions for autonomous driving. Jan 4 Mobileye Twitter

New project in Groruddalen in 2023
During 2023, we will start a new pilot project with self-driving vehicles in Groruddalen in Oslo.

ruter dot no/om-ruter/prosjekter/selvkjorende-kjoretoy/

RFP is at bottom - documents
extensive details and surprises

eu dot eu-supply dot com/ctm/Supplier/PublicPurchase/348676/0/0?returnUrl=&b=RUTER

Mobileye on Feb 17, 2022 (11 months ago) at the Intel Investor Meeting 2022 identified the Ruter/Holo project in the presentation which is on Intel's website.

The ULTIMO project will create the very first economically feasible and sustainable integration of AVs for MaaS public transportation and LaaS urban goods transportation. ULTIMO aims to deploy at three sites in Europe 15 or more multi-vendor SAE L4 AVs per site. 3 deployment cities : Germany, Norway, Switzerland.

THE KEY ULTIMO PROJECT OBJECTIVES
Validate integrated shared CCAM systems and services for people and goods across Europe
Develop open source APIs for seamless integration of vehicles and fleet management into a the MaaS/Laas systems
Incrementally reach large scale, multivendor deployments in all sites, using the most adapted vehicle for each transport use case
Set the basis for a common and reusable model for HD maps for AVs
Provide automated passenger services for safety and service quality
Develop and validate cross-sectoral business models
Improve interaction with road users and infrastructure for improved safety
Realistic, long term transition planning design for the deployment of AVs in MaaS and LaaS

Ruter is part of ULTIMO.

how many on-demand shuttles to replace 100 cars if planned and deployed properly?

3, 4, 5, 6 ?

how many on-demand robotaxis to replace 100 cars if planned and deployed properly?

15, 20, 25?

positioning Starship and Waymo together is of no intrinsic value

Navya hits financial difficulty: French court due to rule on 31 January on receivership proceedings for AV firm.

Autonomous vehicles have been deployed in many cities in recent years, in Switzerland for example, but this means of transport ultimately turns out to be disappointing in terms of passenger capacity and travel speed" , explains Alexandre Rigal, specialist researcher mobility at the Urban School of Lyon. "Above all, it is in rural areas that autonomous vehicles would be most useful, but it is also in these territories that they are the most expensive to develop" , continues Alexandre Rigal.

In general, "there is always a fascination for this type of vehicle, but we are always at a very high cost with a marginal gain for the user" , analyzes Emmanuel Ravalet.

Too slow, too small
The Navya company had launched its autonomous vehicle in the La Confluence district of Lyon in 2016. This small shuttle, which drove without a driver at 10 km/h, transported passengers on short journeys.

31 January 2023

When will Ziegler’s Autonomous Delivery Vehicles Begin Testing?

Ziegler Group understands supply chain challenges more than most.

Filled with excitement, we are looking forward to receiving the first autonomous delivery vehicles that we ordered last year so that we can begin testing them in conjunction with various research institutes and government bodies in Europe.

However, we will need to be patient since our rollout of autonomous delivery vehicles for Europe is somewhat delayed due to supply chain issues for the vehicle manufacturer in the USA.

Udelv – the maker of the Transporter autonomous delivery vehicle Ziegler has ordered – is pioneering cutting-edge solutions for autonomous last-mile delivery, and they are working through the issues caused by economic issues that are causing these unavoidable delays.

There are still some steps to be done before testing can even begin. So Ziegler Group is hard at work setting up the conditions, research and partnerships that must be in place to bring this game-changing technology to Europe. We will use this time to prepare the ground even better.

We are looking forward to the arrival of Ziegler’s first Autonomous Delivery Vehicles. And as we embrace this unfolding revolution in last-mile delivery, we are not losing sight of our goals – bring our customers more convenience while simultaneously boosting sustainability and quality of life in cities around Europe.

WeRide and Yutong Group

Yutong's Xiaoyu 2.0 autonomous bus has entered the stage of massive distribution in Guangzhou, Nanjing, Sansha, Changsha and Zhengzhou. Yutong points out that the implementation has operated for over 700 days, reaching 360 thousand trips and 7.1 million kilometers of operations for open roads. Yutong Xiaoyu 2.0 Won the international 2021 Red Dot Award.

February 22, 2023 Berlin World premiere: Autonomous on-demand vehicles in normal traffic

First project with driverless on-demand shuttles in local public transport. Test phase starts in May in the Rhine-Main area.

Revolution in local public transport: In May of this year, a completely new type of mobility will be piloted in Darmstadt and in the district of Offenbach. Deutsche Bahn, the Rhein-Main-Verkehrsverbund (RMV) and the local partners HEAG mobilo and Kreisverkehrgesellschaft Offenbach (kvgOF) are testing automated shuttles there. These should later be on the road without drivers at normal speed in normal traffic.

In May, an autonomous vehicle will be on the road in Darmstadt for the first time. In the months that followed, 14 more vehicles were added. Eight drive in the Offenbach district, seven in Darmstadt. In the first test phase, all shuttles are on the road with specially trained drivers and without passengers. After a successful second test phase with test customers, the vehicles will be integrated into the existing on-demand offers in Darmstadt ("HeinerLiner") and in the district of Offenbach ("kvgOF Hopper") and can then be booked by anyone interested.

DB and RMV have been working together on Germany's largest on-demand network since 2020. Under the umbrella of the RMV, the offer is available in a total of nine cities and districts. As part of the project, more than 100 on-demand vehicles will be in use by the end of the year, serving more than 3,000 virtual stops. Due to its size and availability almost around the clock, the on-demand service is a pillar of its own in the region's transport concept.

In addition to RMV and DB, the local transport companies HEAG mobilo and Kreisverkehrgesellschaft Offenbach (kvgOF) are involved in the project for “AI-based regular operation of autonomous on-demand transport” (KIRA). The DB subsidiary CleverShuttle operates the autonomous vehicles. The DB subsidiary ioki provides the software for booking and route planning. The project partner Mobileye, which specializes in autonomous vehicles, is supplying the autonomous driving system. The German Aerospace Center (DLR), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) are also part of the funding from the BMDV for the accompanying research.

SoftBank Corp. Starts Autonomous Driving Trials in Tokyo

March 14, 2023
SoftBank Corp. Starts Autonomous Driving Trials in Tokyo
Future TechAutomated driving

SoftBank Corp. Starts Autonomous Driving Trials in Tokyo

Following a previous announcement that it tied up with a US-based autonomous vehicle technology leader May Mobility, SoftBank Corp. (TOKYO: 9434) revealed it began conducting autonomous driving field tests in Tokyo in January 2023. In anticipation of Japan’s legalization of Level 4 autonomous driving in April 2023, the trials are focusing on driving route designs, AI remote monitoring and other tasks necessary to achieve fully automated autonomous driving services.

Starting in April, Level 4 autonomous driving vehicles will be allowed to operate on Japan’s public roads without drivers under a specified set of conditions. While there are high expectations for autonomous driving applications to solve Japan’s driver shortage issue and reduce traffic accidents, autonomous driving services face a number of challenges, including the development of required systems and functions, as well as the costs related to implementation and maintenance.

To address these issues and realize the early implementation of fully automated driving services in Japan, SoftBank is using its trials to verify AI remote monitoring systems, in-vehicle operation support systems, automated route planning and more.

Chinese search engine giant Baidu said it had won a permit to provide a fully driverless ride-hailing service in the Chinese capital of Beijing.

With the permit, Baidu's Apollo service will deploy 10 fully autonomous vehicles in a technology park developed by the government of Beijing, it said in a statement.

Please add the ahoi-project -first large AD-fleet in Europe- to your map. Thanks :)

Autonomous driving with ahoi in Hamburg

Since January 2023, the on-demand-shuttles hvv hop operated by Verkehrsbetriebe Hamburg-Holstein GmbH (VHH) have supplemented local transport in Hamburg-Harburg. Now the innovative service is being taken to a new level.

In the project „Automation of Hamburg’s on-demand service with integration into public transport“ – ahoi for short – the elements „on-demand“ and „autonomous driving“ are to be linked in a unique use case. The aim of this innovation project with research character is to develop and test an on-demand operation with a mixed fleet of 20 autonomously and 28 manually controlled vehicles. This will make ahoi the first on-demand operation with a mixed fleet of this size in Europe.

More information here: vhhbus dot de/hop/ahoi/en/

Hi Brad,

Great job!

Could you please add 2 on-going AV services : Navetty (pilot, private and open-road) and Rivium Parkshuttle (commercial, dedicated lane).

Navetty (France) -> take a look on SHOW pilots here https://show-project.eu/mega-sites-france/

Rivium ParkShuttle (Netherlands) -> https://www.transdev.nl/en/our-routes/travel-areas/parkshuttle-rivium

Regards

Also, Ride the Future AV pilot (Sweden) --> https://show-project.eu/mega-sites-sweden/