FAME Policy Brief: Empowering Cities to Lead Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) Deployment

As part of its concluding activities, the FAME project has released its second policy brief focused on CCAM deployment (find the first one here). Aimed at national policymakers, the brief offers actionable insights to empower local authorities—particularly in urban and peri-urban areas—to overcome barriers and lead the deployment of CCAM technologies. By aligning CCAM with climate goals, enhancing public trust, and fostering cross-sector collaboration, the brief outlines a pathway toward a unified, sustainable, and inclusive mobility future for Europe.

The brief underscores that well-designed and carefully implemented CCAM services can significantly reduce energy consumption and travel time. However, despite progress at the EU level, key differences between national regulatory frameworks still hamper cross-border CCAM testing and deployment. For instance, while two-thirds of EU countries have established laws for testing autonomous vehicles (AVs), the lack of harmonisation remains a major challenge. To address this, the FAME project has developed a flexible and adaptable test permit procedure to accommodate varying national regulations.

The brief also notes that most national CCAM strategies currently lack explicit alignment with national climate and energy plans—often referencing automation in connection with electrification or shared mobility, but without clearly linking to climate neutrality targets. In addition, the development of CCAM solutions is frequently hindered by fragmented efforts across sectors. Overcoming this challenge requires more than alignment: it calls for robust partnerships that integrate public policy objectives with private sector innovation and investment. The brief provides examples and recommendations for how Member States can support local and regional authorities—who often lack the resources and institutional capacity to initiate and sustain such collaborations.

Beyond these areas, the brief also addresses critical issues such as public understanding and acceptance of CCAM technologies, infrastructure readiness and investment, and data governance and sharing—all of which are essential to a successful and inclusive CCAM rollout.

To support this vision, the brief sets out a series of concrete policy recommendations for national authorities, highlighting the key actions needed to enable cities to lead in CCAM deployment: