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The CCAM Partnership on the horizon

25 June 2021
Armin Gräter,
Chairman CCAM Association

A huge milestone has come for the CAD topics in Europe. On 23 June, during the Research and Innovation days, we launched the Co-Programmed Partnership on the Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) in the Horizon Europe programme. Created earlier this year, the CCAM Association, who represents the innovation stakeholders in the Partnership, already gathers more than 150 members: different industry sectors, research institutes and universities, associations and clusters, service providers, and national and local authorities. All of us come together to create, thanks to connectivity and automation, a fully safe and user-centered transport system. Automated mobility can reduce both accidents and congestion; and we want to achieve that.

The Partnership, in principle, will develop and implement a shared, coherent and long-term research and innovation agenda by bringing together the complex cross-sectoral value chain actors with the joint vision: “European leadership in safe and sustainable road transport through automation”.

WHY? The Problem Drivers that hinder the implementation of CCAM

CCAM has a great potential to contribute to key policy goals like the UN Sustainable Development Goals[1], Vision Zero, the European Green Deal[2], Europe fit for the Digital Age[3]. Despite all the expected positive impacts, deployment of CCAM solutions is not yet happening.

Why?

  • Insufficient demand as society does not yet understand the potential benefits of CCAM enabled mobility. The long-term implications, benefits and impacts of integrating CCAM solutions into the mobility system are not sufficiently examined.
  • CCAM solutions are not yet sufficiently mature for wide market take-up, and current investment levels in CCAM R&I are inadequate to maintain and extend EU industrial leadership.
  • Current R&I efforts are fragmented and lack a coherent, longer-term vision and strategy for targeting systemic solutions.
  • Demonstration and scale-up is limited since a well organised, extensive and complex cross-sectorial value chain is still required to build complete CCAM solutions.

Addressing the four Problem Drivers in a coordinated and concentrated manner requires a shift in the mobility innovation process regarding user-involvement, timing and outreach. In the past, big innovations in vehicle technology like seat belts or airbags were introduced by industry as another component to the existing vehicle. After five to ten years of experience with the new technologies, technical standardisation (e.g. ISO standards) gave a thorough basis for developing regulations. Making CCAM solutions ready for deployment (Deployment Readiness[4]) requires that R&I, standards and regulation advance in a synchronised way. Europe needs more large-scale testing, demonstrations and pilot projects involving all relevant stakeholders to accelerate implementation and remove barriers[5].

HOW? Cluster-structure to align CCAM efforts

The CCAM Partnership will align perspectives from road users/consumers, public policymakers, road operators, and industry. The CCAM Cluster structure supports a deeper understanding on the links between specific R&I actions and the progress towards the Operational Objectives of the Partnership. The Clusters are interlinked and provide input to other Clusters. All Clusters together form a comprehensive framework for delivering the expected impacts and achieving the Partnerships’ Objectives.

  1. Large-scale demonstrations
  2. Vehicle technologies
  3. Validation
  4. Integrating the vehicle in the transport system
  5. Key enabling technologies
  6. Societal aspects and user needs
  7. Coordination

The starting point is the understanding of the user needs and societal aspects of mobility (Cluster 6), advancing technologies (2, 4, 5) and demonstrating the maturity at a large scale (1, 3).

Key enabling technologies (5) are needed to enhance solutions. These will be implemented together with future vehicle technologies for sensing, sensor fusion and enhanced safety systems (2). The overall transport system integration complements safe human-machine interaction to understand the requirements and needs for traffic and fleet management and provide physical and digital infrastructure support (4).

Before demonstrating at a large scale (1), safe and resilient system functioning needs to be validated (3). All activities are linked through coordination (7) of all relevant stakeholders, ensuring alignment, interoperability and accelerating innovation uptake.

WHAT? The General Objectives of the CCAM Partnership

A set of agreed objectives addresses all four Problem Drivers while directing the CCAM Partnership programme towards the expected impacts. General Objectives are what the CCAM Partnership aims at contributing to in the longer term. These are the wider effects on society (incl. the environment), the economy and science enabled by the outcomes of R&I investments. They demonstrate the link with the relevant EU priorities and strategies and targets:

  • Safe and efficient co-existence between automated and non-automated “conventional” traffic for a long transition period of mixed traffic while overall reducing the number of fatalities and injuries in road transport.
  • Increased efficiency of transport flows (people and goods) leading to better use of infrastructure capacity and preservation of public space while reducing transport emissions and congestion.
  • Making Europe a world leader in the deployment of connected and automated mobility for people and goods with more focused long-term investments in R&I, development and pre-deployment of CCAM.
  • Support the creation, dissemination and capitalisation of knowledge to accelerate the development and improvement of CCAM enabled solutions.

Which brings us, finally, to the topic of this Blog: the CAD Knowledge Base. One of the CCAM Partnership’s actions is supposed to be the continuation and extension of the existing EU-wide Knowledge Base as the “one-stop shop” for the exchange of knowledge and experiences on CCAM in Europe and beyond. Sharing knowledge is crucial. In creating a common platform for knowledge on CCAM, the Knowledge Base provided an essential pool of information that the Partnership could use during the development of its Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda.

All the interested stakeholders are still invited to join the CCAM Association. By joining the Partnership through the Association, you commit to work together at European level to help remove barriers and contribute to the acceptance and efficient rollout of automation technologies and services.

I am looking forward to working with you on CCAM.

Armin Gräter

Chairman CCAM Association

[1] https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/

[2] The European Green Deal, COM(2019) 640 final, Brussels, 11.12.2019, https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf

[3] Six Commission priorities for 2019-24, https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024_en

[4] Deployment Readiness is a status defined by combining the validated safe system functioning, a good understanding of the expected impact and potential risks, with users’ and society’s readiness to accept, adopt and demand CCAM solutions. It can be measured by e.g. number of successful pilots or field operational trials, participants involved, number of deployed vehicles.

[5] https://ec.europa.eu/growth/sectors/automotive/policy-strategy_en