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The road to better mobility - SPACE

Imagine providing affordable, sustainable and convenient mobility options to all, including people living in suburban or rural areas...

A mission to SPACE

The Shared Personalised Automated Connected vEhicles (SPACE) project aimed to place public transport at the centre of the automated vehicles revolution and help build a combined transport ecosystem. The project ran from March 2018 until September 2021.

SPACE Project

A global initiative

Led by UITP (International Association of Public Transport), the Shared Personalised Automated Connected vEhicles project counted

Progress Map
Over 50 partners

Our partners represent the whole sustainable mobility community.

More than 20 countries

Our partners are based all over the world.

Integration is key

The SPACE project followed the idea that for automated vehicles to contribute to better mobility, they should be introduced in fleets of shared vehicles and integrated with public transport services.

Toolkit
Green city center

© Bruxelles-Mobilité – 2014, conception ZOOO- Espace-Mobilités- Technum: Projection de l’avenue Louise (Bruxelles) 2040

Green etterbeek

© Bruxelles-Mobilité - 2014, conception ZOOO - Espace-Mobilités-Technum: Bruxelles Campus (Gare d’Etterbeek) 2040

Green City

© Land Transport Authority, Singapore

Step by step

During the project, SPACE partners have provided cities, operators, the industry and planners with a toolkit on how to deploy automated vehicles and how to integrate them in the public transport network.

Car-sharing

Need a vehicle for a longer period of time? Fleets of automated vehicles will be available on demand for families, businesses and private groups.

Toolkit
An automated vehicle in a rural village

On-demand shuttles

Whether used as feeder to public transport hubs or as point-to-point service, this automated ride-sharing service will pick up different customers on demand.

Toolkit
An automated vehicle as public transport in a crowded city

Robo-taxis

Fleets of smaller automated vehicles will offer premium on-demand services for private use to travel comfortably with family, friends or colleagues.

Toolkit
An automated vehicle in an urban neighbourhood

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Lexicon

7 words explained

platooning

Also known as flocking. A collection of (automated) vehicles that travel together, actively coordinated in formation. Platoons decrease the distances between vehicles using electronic, and possibly mechanical, coupling. Platooning allows many vehicles to accelerate or brake simultaneously.

urban setting

High density environment with an efficient high capacity public transport system with good capillarity and high frequencies.

suburban setting

Medium density environment with a good public transport system with radial connections to the city center, but lower capillarity and frequencies. This setting includes suburban cities.

small cities

Small, isolated city with an own public transport system and <100K inhabitants.

rural

Low-density environment, small cities and villages with poor public transport services mainly connecting the villages.

SAE level

The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) levels define the level of vehicle autonomy, or in other words, how much human intervention is still needed for an automated vehicle to operate. Currently, five SAE levels have been defined: Level 0: Automated system issues warnings and may momentarily intervene but has no sustained vehicle control. Level 1 (hands on): Driver and automatic system share vehicle control. The driver must be ready to retake full control at any time. Level 2 (hands off): The automated system takes full control of the vehicle (accelerating, braking, and steering). The driver must monitor the driving and be prepared to intervene immediately at any time if the automated system fails to respond properly. Level 3 (eyes off): The automated system takes full control of the vehicle (accelerating, braking, and steering). The driver must monitor the driving and be prepared to intervene immediately at any time if the automated system fails to respond properly. Level 4 (mind off): As level 3, but no driver attention is ever required for safety, e.g. the driver may safely go to sleep or leave the driver's seat. Level 5 (steering wheel optional): No human intervention is required at all. An example would be a robotic taxi.

V2X

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is the passing of information from a vehicle to any entity that may affect the vehicle, and vice versa.