SAFE INTEGRATION OF FULLY AUTOMATED ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEMS IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS: THE BASIS FOR THE MISSING LEGAL FRAMEWORK

Automated Road Transport Systems (ARTS) are transport systems based on the use of fully automated road vehicles controlled by a centralized fleet and infrastructure management system. ARTS are aimed (at least at the beginning) at supplementing mass transit in the last mile and are commercially available today. However, their deployment is limited at the moment, to protected or special roads, while in urban areas, where these systems can be most beneficial, they cannot be implemented due to the absence of an adapted legal framework. The CityMobil2 project, financed by the European Commission, aims at removing (amongst others) the legal barriers that prevent the deployment of Automated Road Transport Systems in urban areas, by developing a specific legal framework. Previous experiences based on risk assessment and Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) have demonstrated being acceptable to the National authorities. On this basis, the CityMobil2 project has started developing a methodology for the certification of fully Automated Road Transport Systems, aimed at guaranteeing an adequate level of safety. The certification framework has been developed at theoretical level, but during the next phases of the CityMobil2 project, it will be tested in real life conditions during the ARTS demonstrations that will be organized in several cities of Europe, in order to make of this methodology a major reference for a future legal framework.