Paving the road for autonomous mobility
Preliminary program Autonomous Vehicles Conference Terhills
What is needed to make autonomous vehicles an integral part of our mobility system?
You got an answer to this question at Smart Mobility Terhills’ conference on autonomous mobility. Did you miss it or would you like to relive the event? We captured the talks in the videos below. You will thus gain insight into the role of legislation, human factors, infrastructure, urban planning and technology in the emergence of autonomous mobility. Regional and international guests and speakers offer you a surprising perspective on the topic from various disciplines, including mobility policy, research institutes, transport organisations, road authorities and consultancy.
A video report of the conference
1. Inspiration from the field
The first fully autonomous transport system in Belgium
Tim De Ceunynck, Project Manager Mobility, LRM
In this presentation we will present the approach and lessons learned from implementing the first fully autonomous transport system and living lab at Terhills
Our lessons learned on operating self-driving mobility in public spaces
Ahmad Hashish (Director Smart Mobility) & Ilse van Zeumeren (Service Designer & Advisor) – The Future Mobility Network NEXT (The Netherlands)
Self-driving mobility has not taken the jump forward in the last 5 years as we envisioned. So far, it has not passed the pilot phase in many countries and the step to scaling up is still being discovered. Nevertheless, there are still many initiatives coming every day in other European countries that like to experiment with self-driving systems. The lessons learned collected after closely following 20+ pilot cities and from their own implementations in The Netherlands give new pilot cities a head start to not make the same mistakes.
Colruyt Group tests autonomous vehicle for Collect&Go grocery deliveries in Londerzeel
Kim Vancauwenberghe, Director, Colruyt Group Smart Technics, & Serge Mapendo D’Ambalasa, Public Affairs, Colruyt Group
Since November, Colruyt Group is testing a tele-operated fully electric vehicle (manufactured by Clevon) on public roads in Londerzeel. After 1000km of testing we started to make first autonomous grocery deliveries for Collect&Go along the 4 kilometer test-track during januari and februari. We gladly share our lessons learned and give a glimpse on the challenges and opportunities ahead. It remains to be seen whether the current policy framework is ready for the next steps in our roadmap.
A glimpse of the robotaxi sector in the United States
Xavier Tackoen, CEO, Espaces Mobilités
Robotaxis are in full development in the United States, particularly in the cities of Phoenix and San Francisco. This presentation aims to provide an update on the status of Waymo and Cruise’s Level 4 technologies and to highlight the operational challenges of operating a robot taxi fleet in a dense urban environment.
2. Inspiration from Scandinavia
Transforming Public Mobility: The Oslo Study and Ruter's Vision for Integrating Self-driving Vehicles at Scale
Lars Gunnar Lundestad, Program Manager Autonomous Vehicles, Ruter (Norway)
Ruter present the inspiring Oslo Study and how it’s translating into a transformative vision for utilizing self-driving vehicles in public mobility. Hear about current large scale pilots and learn about the next steps towards integration. Join us to discover the potential of self-driving vehicles beyond traditional bus-lines and first-last mile shuttles.
Deploying autonomous vehicles on the ground and in the air across Scandinavia - Holo's experience
Christian Bering Pedersen, CEO, Holo (Denmark)
Christian will present Holo’s role as an implementer of autonomous software – taking a project from idea, through getting permits, to operating day-to-day. Christian will show what tools, processes and experiences Holo has from four years of operations with various types of autonomous vehicles.
3. Policy & legislation
The role of the road authority in the emergence of autonomous mobility
Kristof Rombaut, Advisor PMO, Flemish Agency for Roads and Traffic
The role of federal and interfederal authorities regarding autonomous mobility
Nicolas Verstraete, Advisor of the Vice Prime Minister and Federal Minister of Mobility Georges Gilkinet
This presentation will highlight the challenges and ongoing process regarding autonomous mobility from an authority point of view.
Level 4 in Europe: Emerging policies to enable safe autonomous vehicle technology integration on public roads at scale
Arwed Schmidt, Director Strategic Initiatives – Passenger Transportation, EasyMile
After many years of operating without type approval and based on local exemption permits with the need for service attendants on board, recent regulatory developments in a couple of European countries and on European Commission level foster the adoption of fleets of true SAE level 4 autonomous vehicles on European public roads. The presentation will focus on regulatory requests and current challenges and solutions from an AV industry point of view.
4. User experience & business case
Future business perspectives of autonomous shuttles
Evy Rombaut, Assistant Professor, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
In this presentation, we will be going into the future business cases of autonomous shuttles with a capacity of 8-12 passengers. Based on previous studies in our lab on the acceptance of the technology, willingness to pay for an AV service, and pilots deployed throughout the world, we are describing the potential use cases in the future.
User experience of passengers using self-driving shuttles at Terhills
Mario Cools, Full professor in Transport and Mobility, University of Liège
In this presentation, the preliminary results will be discussed from user experience surveys that are currently being conducted with passengers from the self-driving shuttles at Terhills.
5. Technology perspective
What has 8 years of deployment of autonomous shuttles taught us, and what is the way forward for large scale deployment?
Olivier Pairot, Product Director, EasyMile
We will share EasyMile’s views on several dimensions. First, from the very first experiences to the Terhills fully driverless deployment, what have been the techno success recipes or dead ends? Second, how to make this techno accepted by the public, and make it match real needs? Third, what are the next techno roadblocks for AVs to be deployed on a large scale and be part of our daily lives?
Solving the all-weather challenge for AV – away with the LIDAR!
Geoffrey Ejzenberg, Chief Knight, Autonomous Knight
This presentation provides a perspective of what the future could look like from a sensor hardware perspective, how Autonomous Knight contributes to this, and why LIDAR will not be able to enable the higher levels of autonomous. mobility in the future
About the project
Smart Mobility Terhills aims to implement the first long-term fully driverless shuttle service in Belgium, as well as to create a living lab for autonomous vehicles studies and technology. The project is supported by the European Regional Development Fund and the Flemish Government.
About Terhills
Terhills is situated on the former mining site of Eisden, in the heart of the Euregion. The 365 ha site is the main gateway to Belgium’s only National Park. Shaped by its past as a former industrial site, today you can discover touristic attractions such as Terhills Hotel & Conference, Terhills Cablepark, Elaisa Wellness, Maasmechelen Village outlet shopping center and Terhills Resort by Center Parcs. The driverless shuttle service is the backbone of the site, connecting these attractions in an efficient, innovative and exciting way.
www.terhills.be
