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Under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, the European Commission has recently funded 4 new projects focused on driver behaviour and acceptance of connected, cooperative and automated transport: Drive2TheFuture, PAsCAL, SUaaVE, Trustonomy.

These projects share some common topics to investigate on such as the assessment of public acceptance of autonomous driving; the analysis of the driver behaviour under different scenarios; the human/machine interconnections, and last - but absolutely not least - the investigation of ethical and legal issues associated with drivers of autonomous vehicles.

Lila Gaitanidou, CERTH/HIT, Drive2theFuture project coordinator, stresses out that “User should be in the core of designing and deploying connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs). And this is valid for all means of transportation. There are different user categories addressed, from drivers and passengers, to related stakeholders and vulnerable road users, their needs and wants varying accordingly. Drive2theFuture, through its 12 pilots undertaken in 8 European countries and a series of design, modelling, training, awareness and dissemination activities, aims at actively involving all users in the process, towards a successful deployment of CAVs in Europe”.

Guillaume Gronier, LIST, PAsCAL project coordinator, explains that “Our aims is to create a “Guide2Autonomy” that will improve the understanding of the implications of connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) on society, educate future drivers and passengers and help decision makers navigate the transition to new forms of personal mobility resulting from the deployment of Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. It will not only focus on the interaction of the “users” in or near CAV, but also assess the impact of connected transport on people’s well-being, quality of life, and equity by using a strongly interdisciplinary mix of innovative tools from both human science and technology, to capture the public’s acceptance and attitude, analyse and assess their concerns, model and simulate realistic scenarios for hand-on practices, and validate the research innovation in a number of trials in the real world.”

The Instituto de Biomecánica (IBV) is leading the European project SUaaVE (SUpporting acceptance of automated vehicle) with the objective to improve the response and sensitivity of the autonomous vehicle, making it more aware of the occupants, pedestrians and other drivers needs. José Solaz, director of innovation in Automotive of the IBV, ensures that in this way "we will achieve a greater acceptance of the autonomous vehicle by solving the existing gap between technology and the real needs of citizens."

Stefano Bianchi, Softeco, TRUSTONOMY project coordinator, thinks that “Building acceptance and trust in autonomous mobility is one of the keys to the success and actual implementation of the autonomous and connected vehicles. And this is what our project will be working on for the next three years, proposing a complete framework for the evaluation of technical solutions that constitute Autonomous Driving Systems (ADS).”

Drive2TheFuture, PAsCAL, SUaaVE and Trustonomy are ready to work together in the next years for pushing forward the autonomous driving! Stay tuned!

A consortium of 13 international partners will test European users’ knowledge and acceptance of autonomous vehicles, to create a ‘Guide2Autonomy’ containing 100 technical, political, legal and economic recommendations.

How much aware are we of the connected and autonomous cars? What are our expectations about them? Are we worried? Are we ready to drive them or, better, to be transported by them? Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) will be the future mobility, in a very near future. The challenge is on for governments, public authorities, manufacturers and consumers.

The European project PAsCAL, acronym for “Enhance driver behaviour and Public Acceptance of Connected and Autonomous vehicLes”, has been the first one to take on this challenge since the very beginning of June.

PAsCAL – under the EU Horizon 2020 Programme - includes 13 international partners: Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology; Universities of Mannheim, Leeds, Liverpool and Bourgogne Franche-Comté; Automobile Club d’Italia; RED Driving Services; European Blind Union; S3Innovation; Realdolmen; Oply; E-Bus Competence Center and LuxMobility.

Over the next three years, PAsCAL is going to measure and test the degree of awareness and acceptance of European mobility consumers towards connected and autonomous vehicles, with a special focus on road education and on the interaction between traditional and autonomous cars.

The findings will be used to create a Guide2Autonomy containing 100 technical, political, legal and economic recommendations to provide guidance and facilitate the strategic decisions on mobility at an international, national and local level.

People have great expectations about new technologies and CAVs, but more information is needed. A few international studies point out that drivers and pedestrians even feel worried about CAVs: according to a Eurobarometer survey, 61% of Europeans are concerned at the prospect of being in a https://www.pascal-project.eu/ Page 2 driverless car. This percentage drops to 56% among USA people according to the Pew Research Centre Survey. The French are more favorable (68% according to the Payre report), while the Italians are less favorable (50% as reported by ACI Fondazione Filippo Caracciolo).

No comprehensive and updated surveys at UE level are though available so far. The main purpose of the PAsCAL project is therefore to fill this gap, giving an overview of the users’ degree of acceptance and confidence about CAVs in order to better advise Governments and manufacturers on their strategic decisions about mobility