Pre-Commercial Procurement of Future autonomous bus urban level Operation Systems

Project Information

FABULOS

Grant agreement ID: 780371

DOI

10.3030/780371

Project closed

EC signature date 21 November 2017

Start date 1 January 2018

End date 31 March 2021

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)

Total cost

€ 7 774 999,50

EU contribution

€ 6 997 499,56

Coordinated by

FORUM VIRIUM HELSINKI OY
Finland

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - FABULOS (Pre-Commercial Procurement of Future autonomous bus urban level Operation Systems)

Reporting period: 2018-06-01 to 2021-03-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The FABULOS (Future Automated Bus Urban Level Operation Systems) project focused on how cities can use automated buses in a systematic way. Automated shuttles have been tested in technical demonstrations in various countries, but a proof-of-concept for the management of autonomous fleets as integrated part of the public transportation system was not yet available.Cities need to be better prepared and some parts of the driving automation need to reach a more mature stage in their development in order to be employable in normal urban settings, such as open roads. In other words, a demonstration of the economic, technical, societal and legal maturity of the solution was required. FABULOS took all these elements into account, with a special focus on the technical and economic aspects. The project applied a systematic approach - the all-inclusive solution we looked for was not merely about the vehicle, but also on the fleet management capabilities, maintenance and charging, control room functions and integration in existing Public Transport.

This challenge was put forward because the Buyers Group believes that this kind of intelligent transportation system and integrated transportation approach is key part of the future of urban mobility. It can complement existing transport systems by facilitating (electric) last-mile public transport, thereby making the entire (public) transport system more efficient, flexible and sustainable. This fosters the general longer-term goal of sustainable and liveable cities.

The goal of the six Buyers Group members was to use a Pre-Commercial Procurement (PCP) to buy R&D for the prototyping and testing of fleets of autonomous buses in urban environments and to accelerate the introduction of automated last-mile solutions entering the European market. The solution must be able to provide efficient and environmentally friendly last-mile transport. The joint effort of the procuring partners lies in making sure that the offered solutions will be a realistic and commercially attractive alternative to traditional urban public transportation.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The project was carried out following the PCP framework:
Phase 1: solution design: five commercial consortia were selected to prepare a concept and feasibility study.
Phase 2: Prototype Development and Lab Testing: 4 Suppliers selected: transforming the most promising ideas into well-defined and functional prototypes, validated into a technical test laboratory against the requirements defined in the Functional Specifications.
Phase 3: Field Testing: 3 Suppliers selected. They tested the prototype solutions in real-life conditions, based on the Functional Specifications (Tender Document 2’’) set by the Procuring Partners.

The pilots took place as folows:
- S4 - Shotl Consortium: Sensible 4 (FIN) (GACHA shuttle / retrofitted DongFeng CM7/ retrofitted Toyota Proace, retrofitted Renault Twizy), Shotl (ES)
Pilot 1: Apr – Jun 2020: Helsinki (FI)
Pilot 2: Jan - Mar 2021: Gjesdal (NO)
- Mobile Civitatem Consortium: Modern Mobility, Tallinn University of Technology, AuVe Tech (Iseauto shuttle) and Fleet Complete (EE)
Pilot 1: Jul – Aug 2020: Tallinn (EE)
Pilot 2: Nov - Dec 2020: Lamia (GR)
- Saga Consortium: Mobility Forus, Halogen and Ramboll Management Consulting (NOR) together with Spare Labs (CAN) & Future Mobility Network (NL). Navya as subcontractor
Pilot 1: Jul – Sept 2020: Gjesdal (NO)
Pilot 2: Jan - Mar 2021: Helmond (NL)

All were operational in 20-40 km/h zones, had routes of 1,3 - 3,3 km long, lasted 45 - 50 days, consisted of 1-3 vehicles, operated with 4G, established a Remote Control Centre and were integrated in existing public transport route planners. In all pilots passengers traveled for free and completed user acceptance surveys. All in all, 6 different vehicles were used, 13675 km was driven in mixed traffic, 3157 passengers were on board, average speeds up to 20 km/h and maximum speeds up to 30 km/h. Autonomous mode was driven up to 98% of the time.

Exploitable results are first and foremost the actual prototype solutions from the 3 Suppliers validated via 6 field tests in real-life mixed traffic conditions. Suppliers will exploit these by (first) using them as the basis for follow-up R&D and pilots and (then) turning them into commercial services and products. The FABULOS Buyers Group and Preferred Partners will exploit these via follow-up procurements of pilots and/or deployments. In addition, there is a range of documents and lessons that can be exploited. For example, the Functional specifications (Tender document 2’’) and Step-by-step field test planning (part of Tender Document 9: Field test specifications) can be used by (future) procure as a basis for future tender documentation and planning of pilots or deployments. Also the Policy paper and the FABULOS Academy webinars, all available on the website fabulos.eu.

FABULOS has been extremely active in disseminating its progress and results. Not only via high-quality outputs such as videos, e-courses, events, articles, interviews and a professional website, but also via close collaboration with EU-funded projects on the same automated shared mobility topic, via regular one-on-one exchange with interested cities and public transport operators external to the project and via persistent visibility at international conferences and events. The dissemination covered both the process (PCP tool) and the content and exploitable results.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

In compliance with the nature of the Pre-Commercial Procurement framework, FABULOS had set technology advancement targets beyond the current state of the art for participating commercial consortia. Expectations regarding technological maturity of the products were significantly high from the start. In this context and despite efforts of the all three consortia, it was clear that some of the most challenging technical requirements set by the Procuring Partners in the Functional Specifications could not be met during the lifetime of the project. Nevertheless, the pilot showcased technology maturity levels high enough to make the integration to public transportation systems feasible in the near future. Solutions went beyond State of the Art in several ways. See Deliverable D5.6: Policy paper for more details on the technical improvements. Next to these technological improvements, the Procuring Partners also attach high value to the impact on local ecosystems and knowledge building. Due to the testing of these innovative solutions, the capacity of all local and regional stakeholders in understanding and navigating through the specifics of autonomous vehicles and their systems and implications has dramatically increased during FABULOS.

In summary, the FABULOS project generated lessons on political, economical, social, technological and legal aspects of shared automated urban mobility. Concretely, information can be found in the various FABULOS deliverables on:
- Pre-Commercial Procurement as a useful tool for innovation
- Technical capabilities of automated shuttles in mixed traffic
- AV permission and exemption processes in Estonia, Finland, Greece, Norway, Netherlands and Portugal
- The role of cities in bringing automated shared mobility to the streets
- Passenger survey & non-user acceptance research
Many of these lessons are elaborated in Deliverable D5.6: Policy paper - Future application and impact of project results and learnings

Supplier 3 - Navya shuttle by Saga consortium

Supplier 2 - Iseauto shuttle by AuVe Tech

Supplier 1 - GACHA shuttle by Sensible4

Supplier 2 - Iseauto shuttle by AuVe Tech

FABULOS cover photo (e.g. social media, press)

FABULOS primary logo

FABULOS icon

Supplier 1 - GACHA shuttle by Sensible4

FABULOS secondary logo

Supplier 3 - Navya shuttle by Saga consortium