Integrating European diversity in the design, development and implementation of CCAM solutions to support mobility equity (CCAM Partnership)

Research on the societal implications and deployment of CCAM systems and services has mostly been “geography- and culture-agnostic”, focusing instead on mobility behaviours at demographic level and prioritising factors like age and gender. However, European countries encompass multiple cultures, historical heritage, administrative structures, and public policy approaches (e.g. on climate change, digitalisation, and road safety) which may influence the uptake and use of CCAM. The range of cultural, geographical and policy diversities need to be integrated into the design, development and deployment of CCAM solutions. Such diversities can include infrastructure (certain regions have dedicated lanes for alternative mobility solutions, strong bike cultures), specific geographical dispositions (mountains, harsh weather conditions leading to car-captivity or a centralisation of mobility services), or cultural norms and working conditions (e.g. remote working or diverging innovation-friendly or privacy-centric cultures). Furthermore, there are also regional regulatory, policy and governance structures that influence the development and implementation of CCAM or other innovative services.

Adapting to and building on these European differences and similarities will ensure a more tailored, resilient and sustainable match between CCAM solutions, people and societal needs, thereby leading to higher public buy-in and societal benefits. R&I actions will therefore provide a geographical and cultural understanding of CCAM uptake and use, with the aim of contributing to a more integrated, diverse and people centric approach to the design, development and implementation of CCAM supporting mobility equity. Intersecting social factors, such as gender, age, social origin and income level should nevertheless be taken into account, where relevant.

The proposed actions are expected to address all of the following aspects:

1. Evaluate how cultural and regional particularities have led to different transport infrastructure, societal settings, travel needs and behaviours.
2. Develop methodologies that take into account the impact of cultural and regional diversities on attitudes, demand, uptake, and implementation of CCAM solutions, early in the design and development phase. In particular, these methodologies should combine this range of diversities and be based on:
   • Aggregation of results from existing studies and pilots that have investigated isolated diversity aspects in automated mobility contexts.
   • A systems perspective, with specific attention on the impact of CCAM on digital equity (e.g. methods for service payment and information, access to CCAM services, avoiding the negative equity effects of CCAM services without a human driver).
3. Develop principles, criteria and recommendations for the developers and implementers of CCAM systems and services (including local decision-makers and policy makers) that foster the integration of geographical and cultural factors in the planning, design, development and implementation of CCAM through proactive and corrective measures.
4. Propose indicators and approaches to enable a fair integration of cultural and regional factors in CCAM impact evaluation frameworks to better reflect the need for CCAM to support mobility equity.
5. Develop mechanisms to transfer knowledge, e.g. maps, matrices or other instruments, to capture patterns and recurring typologies of settlements, infrastructure and travel indicators in Europe to foster dissemination of people-centric and sustainable CCAM solutions. Include documentation of lessons learnt and approaches for an iterative and long-term evolution and update of the mechanism (until 2030).
6. Demonstrate the developed recommendations and the knowledge transfer mechanism by applying them in at least four pilot activities for CCAM systems and/or services. The majority of pilots should be about shared services and should cover passenger and goods mobility, although a primary focus on either people or goods mobility is possible. The pilots can be local, regional or national but are expected to represent cultural and geographical diversity in at least four European countries.

Projects should make use of the CCAM Knowledge Base[[ https://www.connectedautomateddriving.eu/]] to support their findings and to share research outputs.

This topic requires the effective contribution of SSH disciplines including ethics and the involvement of SSH experts, institutions as well as the inclusion of relevant SSH expertise, in order to produce meaningful and significant effects enhancing the societal impact of the related research activities. Projects should also ground their work in participatory processes to support their findings.

In order to achieve the expected outcomes, international cooperation is encouraged in particular with Japan and the United States but also with other relevant strategic partners in third countries.

This topic implements the co-programmed European Partnership on ‘Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility’ (CCAM). As such, projects resulting from this topic will be expected to report on results to the European Partnership ‘Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility’ (CCAM) in support of the monitoring of its KPIs.