SHOW (Shared Automation Operating Models for Worldwide Adoption)

At the beginning of 2020, the SHOW project focusing on the demonstration of autonomous feeder traffic was launched. The project has been funded through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme of the European Union. In the SHOW project, 69 partners from 13 EU countries support the introduction of shared, networked and electrified automation in urban transport over a four-year period. SHOW is the biggest project ever to pilot automated traffic in an urban environment. The project pilots are hosted by more than 20 cities. The project has a budget of 36 million dollars.

Automated transport is a unique opportunity for a profound change in urban mobility. The change takes place when automated transport vehicles are integrated into the public traffic network. When automatic vehicles are available to everyone, they can dramatically reduce the number of cars on the road, as they also reach people and places that are too difficult to reach for the traditional public transport network. Automated traffic will solve the challenges of feeder traffic and the last-mile problem.

Tampere’s share of the SHOW project is the piloting of autonomous feeder traffic utilising the Hervanta Private-LTE network and the Hervanta district. The City of Tampere is involved in the project, and Sitowise Oy is the Finnish coordinator of the project. In the future, the SHOW project will be able to utilise the level 4 area features developed in this project. In addition, several of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 projects that are in the application phase are intended to utilise the current Hervanta test area.

STARDUST

The aim of the STARDUST project is to reduce the carbon footprint of transport, city services and the life cycle of properties. The project develops low-emission and energy-efficient ICT solutions for themes such as electronic transport, smart outdoor lighting, elasticity of demand in district heating and energy production in new residential areas.

The project has been funded through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme of the European Union. In Tampere, the project is implemented by the City of Tampere, VTT, Tampereen Sähkölaitos, Skanska, Enermix and Aurinkotekno. Implementation is also under way in Pamplona, Spain and Trento, Italy. Lessons learnt are distributed to follower cities in Greece, Northern Ireland and Romania. The project will last until autumn 2022.

AUTOPILOT

VTT was involved in the EU-Horizon-2020 AUTOPILOT project, which developed the IoT environment to support automated transport. The project resulted in an MQTT interface for servers where vehicle data can be collected and shared.

5G-SAFE-Plus

Funded by Business Finland, the 5G-SAFE-Plus project started in 2020 with the Tampere network serving as one of three test platforms (Oulu, Tampere, Sodankylä) for the development of automated traffic.

Launched in September, the international project aims to improve road safety. The vehicles’ own technology is used to provide up-to-date information on, for example, prevailing weather conditions and traffic accidents.

The project will develop a service environment in which observations of the weather and traffic collected by passenger cars and autonomous vehicles can be utilised in various services aimed at vehicles.

The project involves an extensive network of experts.

Ride2Autonomy

The goal of the Ride2Autonomy project is to test the operation and safety of low-floor electric robotic buses in the right traffic environment. In the same context, the socio-economic and environmental impact of such feeder traffic on robotic buses and the experience of users will be assessed. As an international collaboration, Ride2Autonomy is also developing a scalable model for the use and integration of robot buses in public transport.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program. Ride2Autonomy operates in eight EU countries. In Tampere, VTT is participating in the project, and the City of Tampere and Business Tampere are involved in the cooperation. VTT’s AUNE robot bus is used in the robot bus experiment. In addition to Tampere, the project also involves Aveiro (Portugal), Barcelona (Spain), Differdange (Luxembourg), Inverness (UK), Reggio Emilia (Italy), Tartu (Estonia), Trikala (Greece) and Vianden (Luxembourg).