Role of AWARD
On behalf of the consortium on the 14th of February 2023, AWARD at the RTR – conference on Results from Road Transport Research and was represented by #AWARDH2020 team: Arwed Schmidt from EasyMile, Ted Zotos from IRU and Jean-Baptiste HAHN from CARA Transport & Mobility Systems.
AWARD´s main presence at the conference was during the parallel session in which Arwed Schmidt on behalf of AWARD had the opportunity to elaborate on the details and highlights of being on track with deploying all four pilot operations in Europe in 2023. #RTRConference2023 
16.30CET-18.30CET
4. CCAM – New mobility services and future data management needs (EINSTEIN):
– presenting the current status of the four demo cases,
– highlighting the successful testing campaigns,
– highlighting the planned deployments during H2 2023
– deep-dive on the so-far-achievement with the TractEasy driving under hard rain.
The AWARD team had the opportunity to exchange knowledge with Avenue Project, MobiDataLab and nuMIDAS. The session was moderated by Andrea De Candido and Margriet Van Schijndel-de Nooij.
As stated in the RTR conference report: ¨from the introduction onwards, it was clear the session covered topics beyond “classical” automation topics. This broader scope included how automated vehicles are impacting urban mobility and logistics services. Furthermore, the increasing data dependency, brought by many of the CCAM applications discussed, was a returning issue…The questions from the audience were diverse. This led to the following key inputs from the Q&A with the audience:
- Though the projects are not formally connected to the CCAM Partnership, it was
clear they feel being part of a bigger picture and are contributing to CCAM related
developments within a larger framework, - The importance of specific, relevant and challenging use cases was stressed,
especially use cases which address actual needs and questions from city authorities,
while at the same time building a coherent chain of actions towards implementation. - Skills for future steps on project results, in a joint European approach, are lacking,
- The projects showed a similar struggle to transform data into an actionable source
of information.¨
Highlights
This was a very well organized conference and a blessing to be back together with the right people focussing on AV tech development in Europe after the pandemic.
Stretching between mobility data, use-case development for autonomous goods transportation and reflecting on the challenges to integrate autonomous vehicles on open roads, with their panel the moderators Andrea De Candido, Margriet van Schijndel and CCAM's Marzena Jougounoux opened a well-balanced discussion on the current state-of-the-art in Europe.
Arwed Schmidt -
EasyMile
AV technology development has to be approached like a marathon and not a sprint. With AWARD we have the right partners together to take the next milestone, both when it comes to operating in various conditions but also to master central use cases to scale autonomous goods transportation. EC called for synergies – the importance of research and innovation to support policymaking in the upcoming legislative proposals
Ted Zotos -
IRU
What a blast to be part of the RTR Conference. The right place to have a detailed vision of the current state of the art. To meet, promote and exchange about the current and future paths towards sustainable mobility
Jean-Baptiste HAHN -
CARA Transport & Mobility Systems.