Spanish ICT group Indra has announced the launch of autonomous driving trials in Madrid as part of the Europe-wide Autocits project unveiled last year to develop intelligent transport services. The tests are based on cooperative systems (C-ITS) that will enable vehicles, users and infrastructures to communicate and share information, using the ITS-G5 European standard, said Indra. The Madrid pilots will take place in the bus-HOV (carpool) lane of the A-6 motorway connecting with the capital’s M-30 ring road. Indra said RSU (Road Side Units) will use various ITS-G5 communication and mobile communication technologies to send information to the autonomous and connected vehicles when they use the carpool lane.
In addition to the initial deployment, autonomous vehicle tests are also being conducted in a closed circuit at Indra's facilities in San Fernando de Henares on the outskirts of Madrid to verify that information is correctly sent and received.
The Autocits project to test autonomous driving on European roads is set to take place in the metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Paris as well as Madrid. The three cities are the largest in the Atlantic Core Network Corridor, comprising roads that are regarded as priorities for developing Europe's transport infrastructure. The consortium has been allocated a budget of EUR 2.6 million and financing from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme.
