#EUCAD2024 Symposium outcome and what’s next
The EUCAD Symposium 2024 opened on Thursday, April 18 April with regional interventions from EU, US and Japan, which was then followed by a CCAM projects poster exhibition & a networking reception.
The first Friday session of the EUCAD2024 Symposium in Dublin focused on the modernisation of the European road network for safety, sustainability, resilience, and economic competitiveness.
The speakers discussed the importance of seamless connectivity, digital infrastructure, and quality data with low latency for real-time traffic information.
Modernising the road network is essential, among other things, to facilitate CCAM rollout. Currently, various efforts are underway in Europe to achieve this goal, including initiatives such as the TEN-T corridors, projects from CEF Transport and CEF Digital, Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe, 5G corridors, and cross-border initiatives. However, these efforts are fragmented and need to be multiplied. A pan-European approach is required to modernise road infrastructure to become truly network-wide.
However, in order to receive investments, the benefits of modernising the road network have to be proven first. Sustainable business models for both service and vehicle providers are also necessary. Ultimately, we need to move from research to deployment together to connect the dots.
At the TRA2024, Signe Ratso from EC DG RTD said “we should leverage digitalisation towards environmental sustainability.” Let’s also add that we should leverage digitalisation towards safety.
During the 2nd session, updates from the FAME project were discussed, focusing on CCAM common evaluation methodology and data sharing framework.
Breakout sessions followed, allowing all the participants to contribute to 3 topics:
- Performance indicators for societal impacts of CCAM
- Sharing of scenario data
- Using CEM and DFS in proposal writing
It was announced that a CEM webinar will be organised on 08/05! Check out the details: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1908175380856805973
During the last session, titled “Remote Management Operations”, several perspectives were discussed, such as the role of hypervision in assisting Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) through remote support, reactions, and anticipation. Many aspects still require research: our member BASt came up with almost 150 research questions in this field, which is another hot topic for CCAM!
For both topics, digital infrastructure and remote management, the “chicken and egg” problem of regulation versus deployment was brought up. It is recognised that regulations are necessary for deployment, but it can be difficult to establish effective regulations before the technology is fully understood. The solution proposed is to form public-private working groups to address and work on this issue.
The #EUCAD2024 Symposium covered all the major topics regarding CCAM at present:
- Infrastructure
- Data
- Remote management
Armin Gräter concluded the symposium by emphasising the importance of cooperation and collaboration for the betterment of the road traffic system. Safety and performance are not conflicting, but rather complementary. There is an urgency to act now.
You can already mark your agenda with the dates of the #EUCAD2025 conference, which will take place from 13-15 May 2025 in Ispra, Italy. If you want to contribute to the conference, a call for sessions will be launched very soon, so stay tuned.
Thank you to the FAME project for the excellent organisation and to CCAM stakeholders for their involvement, even though the week was very busy with the #TRA2024 that ended just the day before!
