Self-driving cars: cheaper, sustainable urban transportation to Europe

The future of urban mobility is coming. EU-supported trials of driverless cars in public transport can make European city centers affordable, cleaner, safer, more efficient, more inclusive and fair.

go through Gareth Wilmer

Grouddalen, a large urban valley in northeastern Oslo, Norway, is laying the foundation for an important transformation in urban transportation.

In early February 2025, five self-driving electric vehicles began opening the public around the area. This marks a European Union-funded program to integrate automated vehicles into public transport systems.

As part of the Ultimo initiative, the Norwegian launch is the first of three plans. The research team aims to lay the foundation for the world’s first large-scale, on-demand, autonomous public transportation service.

Greening and digitization of the transport sector are key policy objectives for the EU, which is to invest €500 million in public-private partnerships for cooperative, interconnected and automated liquidity (CCAM).

The aim is to develop citizen-centered, safer, environmentally friendly and inclusive public transport options while providing important new opportunities for European industry.

On-demand city transportation

The other two pilot services are expected to begin later this year in the town of Herford in northwestern Germany and the Greater Champagne region in the state of Geneva, Switzerland.

The Ultimo team brings together transport technology companies and associations from seven EU countries, transportation authorities, manufacturers, universities and consulting firms, as well as Norway and Switzerland. These include the International Public Transport Association, Siemens and Capugmini.

The collaboration, which will take place in September 2026, will create an economically sustainable model for “demand-responsive” automated vehicles for transporting people and urban items. This means that unlike unmanned subways that only follow their predefined lines, for example, routes may vary depending on passenger requirements.

The main feature of demand responsive automation is that the vehicle is completely autonomous in well-defined designated areas such as Groruddalen. The system relies on 3D maps, radar, cameras and connected infrastructure for decision-making.

“We are talking about integrating shared self-driving cars into part of public transportation,” said Christian Willoch, executive consultant for radical innovation at the Oslo Public Transport Authority Ruter.

The new automation system will use electric vehicles. This should significantly reduce the environmental impact of road transport, which is estimated to cause nearly a quarter of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, according to UN data.

Better connection

The world is seeing the push to integrate automatic transport into public transportation systems.

The EU is a leading player in CCAM research, supported by public-private partnerships and EU-funded research and development programs such as Ultimo.

Through these efforts, momentum is building on-demand public transport services and ultimately integrating different public and private mobile options into a single digital platform to better meet the needs of urban residents and even regions.

Just the beginning

After preliminary experiments to measure user experience, Ultimo launched its publicly used app in Oslo. It allows passengers to book and share a luxury electric SUV – Nio ES8 – to be modified with autonomous driving technology.

The researchers’ intention was to add other vehicles to the combination, especially those made in Europe, as the service became more certain. Currently, users are not charged, and as part of the ongoing research is evaluating pricing strategies.

Willoch said the initial feedback was very positive, but admitted that by the end of the project, a potential fleet of 10 to 15 vehicles will need to be greatly expanded to act as a real public service.

“We think that to make an impact on our region and get people to rethink using private cars, we may need about 500 cars,” he said. Scaling should also lower prices.

“Our calculations show that with scale, we will reach a lower price than private cars than private cars.”

The game that changes the mobility of cities

Andreas Fehr, an autonomous driving consultant at DB Regio Bus, a regional bus subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn, is responsible for coordinating much of the work done by Ultimo Partners.

He believes that if such on-demand autonomous vehicle systems can be effectively deployed in the long run, they will become the game rules for public transportation. But he admits that there are still many challenges.

Currently, the vehicles used are still human safety operators. This has reduced human error, provided faster response times and more consistent driving behavior while still having the complexity of human backups.

In the long run, the purpose is to have no safety operators, but it requires enhanced sensors and ability to handle unexpected events, requiring further advances in autonomous vehicle technology. Comprehensive remote monitoring technology that combines human supervision and AI software also needs to be in place.

It also requires automated on-board service to meet passenger safety requirements, as there are no more drivers.

Remote monitoring will allow real-time insights and a 360-degree view of the road condition while still allowing humans to intervene when necessary.

Another challenge is the need to create standardized autonomous vehicle systems to make it easier for public transport to coordinate different services with each other and traditional public transport options.

“We are having detailed conversations with different manufacturers to understand the basic information we can build mappings and API standards,” Fehr said.

Part of the mission Ultimo team has received funds to deliver, which is to make it easier for people with fewer public transportation options available.

“This is a large opportunity to provide more mobility for it,” Fehr said. He hopes the model proposed by the team will lead to sustainable changes in urban and suburban mobility and better access to rural and smaller population areas.

“It is expected to inspire more people to not use or buy their own cars, but to use on-demand public transportation that shares driving,” he said. “This is the type of sustainable transformation we need as a global society.”

The research in this article is funded by the EU’s Horizon Program. The views of respondents do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission.

More information

This article was originally published in the European Journal of Research and Innovation.

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