MANTRA deliverables

• What are the influences of automation on the core business in relation to road safety, traffic efficiency, the environment, customer service, maintenance and construction processes?
• How will the current core business on operations & services, planning & building and ICT change in the future?

Automation will find its way into real-world road-based mobilities. MANTRA deliverable 2.1 (Vehicle fleet penetrations and ODD coverage of NRA-relevant automation functions up to 2040) suggests discussing and preparing for these issues and this transition phase within road operators’ management layers by means of five concepts / tools:

• four priority use cases for AV, (Highway autopilot including highway convoy (L4) – 1 as 1st phase; Highly automated (freight) vehicles on open roads (L4); Commercial driverless vehicles (L4) as taxi services; Driverless maintenance and road works vehicles (L4)
• Operational Design Domains (ODDs) for the use cases, including the road operator attempts to categorise their physical and digital infrastructures in support to them
• estimated ODD coverages up to 2040
• a set of fleet penetration rates for these priority use cases and
• a first discussion on limitations of this approach to discussing an open future

Deliverable 4.2 (Consequences of automation functions to infrastructure) indicates to introduce three new road operator related ODD attributes of traffic management, infrastructure maintenance, and fleet supervision (centres). All three are elements, which affect the management and realisation of the ODDs but are not direct ODD requirements. Also adding a virtual road network or the network’s digital twin is a candidate for an ODD attribute, which supports the management and supervision of highly automated vehicles as a basic element for real-time simulation to assist in the choices of the traffic and fleet managers of the automated vehicles.

In addition, this report contains a list of attributes of the physical and digital infrastructure related to connected and highly automated vehicles.

The road map in deliverable 5.2 (Road map for developing road operator core business utilising connectivity and automation) consists of tables describing 92 actions, of which 22 priority actions, in different areas up to 2040.  The actions are classified in three major categories:

• Actions with no regret – actions useful also for human-operated vehicles to be carried out due to present needs and other developments;
• Study and learn – actions to find out more about the technology, operation, benefits, costs and implementation issues in order to understand the potential, restrictions and feasibility of automated driving;
• Key actions for deployment – actions to safeguard NRA interests and with major future impact on NRA investments and operations.

A common key finding in all three deliverables is that there are some inherent difficulties in supporting the ODDs as they depend on the capabilities of the sensors and software including AI of the automated vehicles, and these capabilities are improving quite quickly with the evolution of related technologies.

see links:

https://www.cedr.eu/download/D2.1-Vehicle-fleet-penetrations-and-ODD-coverage.pdf

https://www.mantra-research.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/MANTRA_Deliverable_D42_Final.pdf

https://www.traficom.fi/sites/default/files/media/file/MANTRA_Deliverable_D52_for_PEB_review.pdf