France accelerates in automated and connected road mobility

The Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion has announced eight new mobility projects in various regions.

These projects involve a corporate investment of 80 million euros, including nearly 44 million euros in public support within the framework of France 2030. As a reminder, France 2030 aims to enable the production of 2 million zero-emission vehicles annually by 2030 and to develop frugal, sovereign, and resilient mobility. To achieve these goals, 3.6 billion euros are planned.

The 8 winning projects, stemming from the first and second rounds of the call for projects in the “Automated and Connected Road Mobility” theme, concern pilot services for automated passenger transport in various forms (regular services, on-demand transportation, or shuttles to multimodal hubs).

• AVFS: safety redundancy system for a fully automated vehicle
• Log-Aut: automated logistics and handling vehicles
• RIMA: pilot of automated transport services, inclusive mobility, without onboard operator (Crest Val de Drôme, Drôme)
• 5G Open Road: automated and connected freight and passenger transport services leveraging 5G (Vélizy-Villacoublay and Saclay plateau, in Yvelines and Essonne) — CORAM 2021 project
• MACH2: automated public transport using a fleet of high-capacity minibuses with electric or hydrogen propulsion, without onboard operators, in a city center on open roads in mixed traffic with secure connected infrastructure (Châteauroux, Indre)
• MOBAUTO2: shared automated mobility service connecting a multimodal hub and a bus station, aimed at developing collective mobility on highways and reducing single-occupant car trips (Longvilliers, Bris-sous-Forges, and Massy, in Yvelines and Essonne)
• SMACS: mobile services for territories, without onboard operators and with remote supervision (Linas-Monthléry, Mortefontaine, and Plessis-Trévise, in Essonne, Oise, and Val-de-Marne)
• YELO DETA: automated on-demand transport service in low-density areas, for travel and shuttles to existing high-quality mobility services (La Rochelle, Charente-Maritime)

READ ALSO > Senate: Low Emission Zones Overlooked by the French