Automated Mobility : The People behind the Wheel

#14 William Levassor – How Public Transport Operators steer the future of autonomous vehicle fleets

In this episode, William Levassor from beti, a French public transport operator (PTO) specialized in low-density areas, shares insights about their mission to combat mobility white zones through innovative mobility solutions. William talks to us about the pivotal role operators play in bridging the gap between AV technology providers and their clients – the territories – making sure to provide inclusive solutions. We dive into the challenges and opportunities in operating autonomous shuttles with the need for hypervision that covers the numerous roles of the operators from service and passengers’ management, field events management and support for driving. We clarify the terminology and expectations towards telesupervision and even, remote driving. William talks about Beti's vision for the future of mobility operations, the role of AI in enhancing safety, and the unique challenges faced by operators in the dynamic landscape of transportation. 
"Deploying an AV service in a city is not only about driving the vehicles for point A to B; our focus as PTOs extends beyond. It's about orchestrating seamless daily operations with high quality of service and security for all."
Don't miss this in-depth exploration of the transformative journey towards a more connected and efficient mobility ecosystem.
*** This is the last episode for Henriette Cornet as the host of this podcast series, as she is starting a new professional chapter soon. Follow her online to make sure to stay in touch! ***
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Acronyms:
PTO: Public Transport Operators
DRT: Demand-responsive Transport. More info here.
Links:
Beti 
Beti’s SHOW pilot site at Crest Val-de-Drome
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

#13 Henriette Cornet (the host) - Behind the wheel, reflections and futures

In this podcast episode, the host Henriette Cornet wraps up the year 2022 with the main highlights that happened in the field of automated mobility and in the SHOW project. After discussing some of the automated services that are now deployed in the project in numerous cities over Europe, she tells us what is next in the project and invites the listeners to answer a quick questionnaire in order to get to know the audience and gather feedback about the Podcast – we want to hear from you! questionnaire below!). 
Questionnaire:
Please answer the questionnaire here to give us your feedback about the podcast series. Do you like it? What was your favorite episode? What do you want to hear about in the future? It is very short and anonymous!
Links:
SHOW YouTube channel with videos of the pilots (Turin, Madrid, Tampere, Brainport, Linköping, Carinthia, …)
SHOW photo gallery
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

#12 Maria Gkemou – How to make the difference with ambitious research and large-scale demonstrations

In this podcast episode, we (finally!) talk to Dr Maria Gkemou from the Centre for Research & Technology, Hellas CERTH in Greece. Maria is in the team of the Technical and Innovation Management of SHOW, at the heart of the technological development of the project. Maria shares her view about the innovations developed in the project and how they can help improve the overall mobility system. Regarding the high ambitions of the project, Maria emphasizes that “you need to make the difference if you want to make [the project] worth it and have an impact.”
Links:
CERTH/HIT www.imet.gr/index.php/en/
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

#11 William Riggs – Purpose-built urban technologies for liveable cities

In this episode, SHOW welcomes a special guest, Professor William (Billy) Riggs from the University of San Francisco. He shares his views on the current deployments of robotaxis in the US, especially through his collaboration with Cruise in San Francisco. We learn about the service in place and how it can complement the public transport system at nighttime. Billy tells us about his vision of a liveable city in which “autonomous travel is connected to our goals of a pedestrian and cycling-friendly city”. 
 
Links: 
University of San Francisco, School of Management
Autonomous Vehicles & the City Initiative: November 2022 conference recordings 
Cruise Self Driving Cars
Paper “The Trip Characteristics of Pilot Autonomous Vehicle Rider Program” by William Riggs et al., 2022 
Book “End of the Road – Reimagining the street as the heart of the city” by William Riggs, Bristol Press 2022 
Paper “Gaps and opportunities in accessibility policy for Autonomous Vehicles”, Mineta Transportation Institute, 2021 
The 15-minute city by Carlos Moreno 
Acronyms: 
TNC: Transportation Network Companies (e.g., Uber, Lyft) 
ODD: Operational Domain Design 
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

#10 Lieselot Vanhaverbeke & Evy Rombaut – Impact assessment as key for sustainable automated mobility

In this episode, Professors Lieselot Vanhaverbeke and Evy Rombaut from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) share with us why evaluating the impacts of automated mobility is essential to move towards more sustainable cities. After a brief introduction of the history of VUB, we get to know the research institute MOBI, in which the M3ICA methodology was invented. This methodology helps the researchers of the project understand the multiple layers of impacts that AVs have on micro and macro levels, considering a variety of criteria (e.g., safety, environment, traffic flow) and stakeholders (e.g., citizens, municipalities).
Both Lieselot and Evy speak about their passion for sustainable mobility and how it connects to their personal experiences, among others with music!
Acronyms:
MOBI - Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre
M3ICA - Multi-Impact, multi-Criteria, and multi-Actor analysis
 
Links
MOBI research centre
SHOW deliverable D9.3 Pilot experimental plans, KPIs definition & impact assessment framework for final demonstration round
Transport Research Arena conference
Podcast (in Dutch) “De zelfrijdende shuttle: UZ Brussel”
Chapter of the book (in Dutch) “Autonome Motorvoertuigen - Een multidisciplinair onderzoek naar de maatschappelijke impact”
And last but not least: Moby’s song “Mobility”
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.
 

#9 Guido di Pasquale – Paving the way to interdisciplinary collaboration

In this episode, Guido reminds us the vision of UITP for a sustainable mobility with the motto “move people, not cars”. He explains how he contributed to make UITP an important player in the field of automated mobility with the creation of the SPACE project, which kicked off in 2018 and from which SHOW originates.
Beyond learning on how SHOW was created, we hear about Guido’s interests for the project demos, which aim to put Automated Vehicles in the midst of the public over several months of operation. Guido also explains why European funded projects are powerful tools for research in Europe to establish interdisciplinary collaboration between countries.
Finally, Guido presents a new association called “PAVE Europe” dedicated on enhancing the public understanding of driverless technology since “we can only succeed if we involve the public now”.
 
Links :
The non-profit association ITxPT 
The new association PAVE Europe 
The EU project Data4PT  
UITP’s project SPACE  
The SHOW demonstration sites  
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

#8 Delphine Grandsart – For a continuous citizen engagement

In this episode, Delphine introduces EPF – the European Passengers Federation – and its members. She tells us about the passengers whose needs and wishes are key when developing a seamless mobility system in the city. In SHOW, Delphine is in charge of the user engagement strategy: she shares with us the different forms that this engagement can take: focus groups, ideathons, hackathons or even citizens’ dialogues, with the ultimate goal to unveil “how much technology do we need for our mobility and what is in it for the end-users and for the society as a whole”. She reminds us that user engagement is a continuous action because new users will always come to try the service and we should not forget about keeping a human touch while developing automated mobility services.
 
Links :
EPF The European Passengers Federation
SHOW user engagement strategy
SHOW pre-acceptance survey of AVs
SHOW 1st Hackathon in Thessaloniki
SHOW CCAM Marketplace
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

#7 Joachim Hillebrand – Simulating a city with AVs

In this episode, Joachim Hillebrand, from VIF – the Virtual research centre, explains his activities in SHOW: on the one hand, Joachim is coordinating the demo site of Graz, Austria, in which passenger cars will transport passengers from the metro station to commercial areas, and on the other side, as Joachim is leading the simulation activities in SHOW.
Among others, you will learn about the different types of simulators that are used in the project, what you can learn from them and why it is complex to make them run together.
“Digital twins enable to simulate how a city and its traffic would look like with thousands of AVs; we can’t do that in the real world now”
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Links:
VIF – Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH
SHOW Austria mega sites 
SHOW all-public article: Simulation of urban automated mobility 
SHOW Deliverable ‘D10.1: Simulation scenario and tool’ 
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Disclaimer: This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 875530. The sole responsibility for the content of this podcast lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the CINEA nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.