Europe aims to decarbonise transport while keeping mobility inclusive, safe and affordable. Public transport authorities and operators also face rising costs and, in many regions, structural driver shortages. Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) can help—especially for on-demand services that complement fixed lines—but large-scale deployment is still hindered by interoperability gaps, complex safety and regulatory pathways, uncertain business cases, and the need for public acceptance.
ULTIMO (“Advancing Sustainable User-centric Mobility with Automated Vehicles”) prepares the way for large-scale automated, shared public transport, and explores combined passenger and goods services. It does so through demonstrations in three European sites (Geneva, Oslo, Herford) and by developing the end-to-end operational ecosystem: vehicle integration, fleet orchestration, interfaces to MaaS/LaaS, in-vehicle/passenger support services, cybersecurity and data governance, plus evaluation methods. A core goal is to avoid vendor lock-in by advancing common interfaces (notably a common vehicle API and harmonised data models) so fleets from different manufacturers can connect to the same operational back end.
The pathway to impact is: build interoperable technical foundations → validate processes and services in realistic operating conditions → measure performance, safety, acceptance and costs with a shared KPI framework → deliver roadmaps and recommendations that help cities, operators and industry scale CCAM. Social sciences and humanities are integrated through co-creation and user research (including vulnerable users), translating needs, concerns and accessibility requirements into service design and operational requirements.
