Are Europe's roads ready for CCAM? Part one.
STOP TALKING AND
START DOING!
Twenty years or so ago it would have been appropriate to ask this question: “Is connected vehicle technology as advanced as we’d like to think it is?” Not that we would have called it ‘connected vehicle technology’, of course.
In 2024 the question has been completely turned on its head. Connected, Cooperative and Autonomous Mobility (CCAM) technology has moved on at an incredible pace over the last few years and the question is now: “Are Europe’s roads ready for CCAM?” Perfectly placed to provide insightful answers are Steve Penn, SWARCO UK’s Head of Innovation ITS Division and Daniel Lenczowski, SWARCO’s Germany-based CCAM sales executive.
“To be perfectly honest,” says Steve, “the simple answer is no – or not yet. From my perspective, there are a lot of isolated projects and deployments across Europe, but if we look at the support from the European Commission, where central funding comes from, I would say there's still a huge gap in relation to how that money is invested. Infrastructure is digital and we have a foundation where services can be built on for future technology evolution.”
Billions of Euros have been invested into CCAM projects but, Steve adds, there still seems to be a lot of confusion when it comes to interoperability.
“There’s a difference in countries’ knowledge of what they need to do for the future. We’re heading towards Level 4, even Level 5 autonomous vehicles in the future but there are still a number of steps we need to climb along the way to get there. I also look for the positives but this is the reality of what we're finding as a global player having to make massive investments of our own to keep up with standards.”
We’re heading towards Level 4, even Level 5 autonomous vehicles in the future but there are still a number of steps we need to climb along the way to get there
“That’s not an easy question to answer in just few a sentences,” half-jokes Daniel, “but there's definitely quite a number of positive things going on right now in Europe in terms of opportunities. The technology, and that’s both from the infrastructure and the vehicle side, is already there. It’s good enough to support CCAM services and to support the increasing automation levels. From the infrastructure perspective, I think we can also highlight that SWARCO was committed for at least the last 15 years in developing, standardizing and creating an open ecosystem for those services to be implemented in the right manner.
“The goal is that you can drive from Portugal to Finland and throughout the journey the services are seamless. So, in that sense, I would say this is a very positive situation.”
One word that continues to appear in transport technology-related publications is ‘trust’. Users have to not even give the notion of trusting the technology a second thought.
Says Daniel: “We’re on the right path to create trust and to create a structure in which the parties involved, be they producers or consumers of the data, can take ownership of the system performance, which is most definitely a good step forward.”
The challenges are clear, so is it even realistic to expect European roads to be ready, when you consider how much technological know how and research has gone into the whole idea of CCAM? After all, as ITS expert Phil Tarnoff wrote in 2005, we've got 21st century technology in 20th century cars driving on 19th century roads.
“It’s all about preparation,” interjects Steve. “It's something that we push internally at SWARCO. We build initiatives and campaigns, we do all sorts of things to try and help different countries and authorities and road administrators to understand where the market is going. Preparation for us is the fundamental key thinking right now, because even countries that may say, ‘we're 10 years away from being ready’, they should start planning now. Germany and the UK are good examples. They invest for 10, 15 or even 20 years.
“In the UK there's been a large amount of funding made available to upgrade ITS infrastructure. However, there was no scope to make it C-ITS-ready. My question would be, ‘why not?’. It's a perfect opportunity. In Germany, for example, we're working with certain cities that are doing exactly that. So everything they do at the intersection, they make sure it's C-ITS-ready.”
Steve further advocates the notion of preparedness in the deployment of cooperative, connected and autonomous mobility solutions.
“Let’s make sure that the right infrastructure is in place”, he insists, “so when more connected vehicles are on our streets, there will be more use cases there, and a larger ecosystem. But of course you can't start that unless you have the right infrastructure.”
On the positive side of things, the roads are a perfect example of how the industry at large, partners from OEMs and the road operators can be glued together in order to start speaking the same language and having the same goal, as Daniel elucidates.
I think that we are very well set to get started now. We can take the examples of Western Europe and start deploying in Central and Eastern European countries
“I think that we are very well set to get started. We can take the examples of Western Europe and start deploying in Central and Eastern European countries, such as new members like Lithuania, Slovakia and the Western Balkans. The technology is well tested and well prepared so we can start scaling it up using the EU’s significant financial aid. We can start deploying the latest technology to solve the problems from the past.”
Daniel has the last word and issues something of a rallying cry.
“The technology is there,” he insists. “We’re approaching the last mile, so it’s time to stop talking and start doing.”