Robot bus fleets have been successfully tested in five European cities as part of the EU-funded Fabulos project.

Within the project, three different robot bus options have been tested in Finland, Norway, Estonia, Greece and the Netherlands. The aim was to procure systems for the operation of automated last-kilometre transport and demonstrate scalability.

Based on the results, proof-of-concepts for the management of autonomous fleets as part of the regular public transportation system have now been delivered.

During the final field-testing phase of the Fabulos pre-commercial procurement, the selected robot bus prototypes were tested as small fleets of shuttles between April 2020 and March 2021. Each of the three suppliers chosen for this phase received up to €1m to prepare pilots and validate their prototypes. The three supplier consortia, each composed of several companies representing six countries in total, were Sensible4-Shotl (Finnish–Spanish), Saga (Norwegian–Canadian–Dutch) and Mobile Civitatem (Estonian).

Despite the Covid-19 restrictions, all six pilots were carried out according to plan: two field tests per supplier consortium. A total of 2807 passengers were carried onboard the robot buses and approximately 14,000km were driven in open road conditions in Finland, Estonia, Norway, Netherlands and Greece.

After each pilot, a pre-set list of nine functional requirements as well as societal, legal and technical maturity of the autonomous fleets were assessed by a seven-member evaluation team consisting of the procuring partners and the project’s technical partner, Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.

The project has received a great deal of attention in the international media due to its procurement approach and the goal of testing remotely controlled fleets of robot buses in real-life conditions in mixed traffic and with residents as passengers. Furthermore, the virtual Fabulos conference in February 2021 attracted participants from all over the world, including Timo Harakka, the transport and communications minister of Finland.

“Based on our vision, automated transportation is safer, more efficient and more sustainable than the current state of transport,” said Harakka. “However, the development we hope to see in Finland will not become a reality without a clear common goal and joint effort. Therefore, may the Fabulos project be a springboard for the next steps towards a large-scale mobility service provided by autonomous vehicles.”

Before Fabulos can be fully commercialised and implemented into public transport systems, several legislative aspects and technical features need to be improved. Solid political support and inclusion of all relevant stakeholders from the planning phase onwards was key to the success of the project. Therefore, for future robot bus initiatives and pilots, open and comprehensive dialogue with policy makers, technology providers, public transport operators and regulatory bodies is recommended.

The procuring partners attach high value to the impact of Fabulos on local ecosystems and knowledge building. Due to the testing, the capacity of all stakeholders for understanding the specifics of autonomous vehicles, their systems and implications has increased during the project.

In Europe, more harmonised regulation is needed to facilitate implementation of robot bus pilots and the eventual integration of automated transportation in cities. In Estonia, Finland, Netherlands and Norway, a regulatory framework facilitating automated transport is already in place, but its conditions and procedures vary widely. In Greece and Portugal, the project was a starting point to launch or refine such legislative processes. Ultimately, all vehicles within the project proved to be able to succeed in the relevant national exemption and permission procedures, with the exception of Portugal.

In the project, the target for the technology advancement was set beyond the current state of the art, in compliance with the nature of the pre-commercial procurement framework. Consequently, expectations regarding the technological maturity were high from the start. Despite the efforts of all three supplier consortia, it became clear that some of the most challenging technical requirements could not be met in mixed-traffic conditions, such as fully autonomous overtaking manoeuvres. Nevertheless, the field tests showed technology maturity levels high enough to make integration with public transportation systems feasible in the near future.

The speeds of the pilot vehicles reached 30km/h, with passengers on board and with steep hills (Gjesdal) and in a busy urban environment (Helsinki). The capability to manage a fleet of autonomous vehicles in busy urban mixed traffic conditions was proven, as were the operations of a remote control centre at all pilot sites, monitoring the fleets.

Furthermore, improvements in localisation technology of the robot buses allowed operations on routes that previously required additional landmarks or were considered completely unfeasible. Furthermore, the retrofitting of autonomous driving software in various regular vehicles was validated and improved.

The project brought a significant increase in the technical robustness and reliability of the pilot vehicles. Nevertheless, the forthcoming commercialisation and wider roll-out of automated transport depends on further technological advancement in some areas, as well as wider user-acceptance.

The overall aim of the pre-commercial procurement was to accelerate the introduction of new types of automated last-kilometre transport entering the market. Now that the project has ended, the procuring cities, other European cities and public transport operators are taking the next steps within the field of autonomous public transportation, building on the lessons learnt in the project.

Since a pre-commercial procurement does not include commercialisation, the future developments in the field of robot buses by the Fabulos partners are part of the next step: Fabulos Phase X.

In Phase X, concrete plans for follow-up projects have been confirmed in the cities of Helmond, Lamia and Helsinki. The pilot in summer 2020 in the Ülemiste business district in Tallinn is being continued by AuVe Tech during the spring and summer of 2021, extended with on-demand functionalities. In Helmond, the city, province and their partners are working towards a permanent last-kilometre offering on the Fabulos route and integration in new neighbourhoods.

Fabulos stands for “future automated bus urban level operation system” and was a research and development project that sought to establish and deliver a systemic proof-of-concept for automated last-kilometre public transport as part of the existing transport system of urban areas, based on the use of self-driving minibuses.

The project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and ran from January 2018 until March 2021. It had partners in Estonia, Finland, Greece, Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.