Advanced Urban Transport: Automation Is on the Way

The automobile played a major part in the 20th century development of urban (now mostly suburban) organization and became fundamental to its operation. We must now think about a new form of urban transport to meet the 21st century's challenges. In Europe, several programs are looking at technologies based on automated transport over existing and possibly new road infrastructures. These transport systems require a hierarchical network with very-high-capacity links, along with medium- and low-capacity links, optimization, and demand control. The objective is to provide door-to-door transport to anyone (or anything) at any time but at different costs, depending on the modes used. CyberCars is one of several European projects that have begun developing these technologies. CyberCars are fully automated road vehicles