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FABULOS: A joint Pre-Commercial Procurement for an autonomous bus line of self-driving mini buses
Published on 29 May 2019
Greece
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About this good practice
Self-driving minibuses have already been tested in technical demonstrations in various countries, but a proof-of-concept for the management of autonomous fleets as part of the public transportation provision is not yet available. A demonstration of the economic, technical, societal and legal maturity of the solution is required, in a real-life setting, integrating automated minibuses into the public transportation ecosystem.
FABULOS embraces this challenge by collectively procuring, through a joint Pre-Commercial Procurement, the prototyping and testing of smart systems that are capable of operating a fleet of self-driving minibuses in urban environments. These solutions should be all-inclusive: software, hardware, fleet and services. The procuring partners play an important role by combining their efforts in supporting the market to develop such innovative systems and by providing a first customer test reference where new types of automated last-mile solutions enter the European market. In this way, FABULOS not only demonstrates a use case scenario where public authorities can act as innovation demanders but also a reference model for transforming inherently rigid, inflexible and inexperienced procuring entities (such as small Municipalities) into innovation accelerators in high tech sectors. In general, FABULOS shows how public entities must be prepared and motivated in a diversity of cross-domain interventions in order to procure and host innovations.
FABULOS embraces this challenge by collectively procuring, through a joint Pre-Commercial Procurement, the prototyping and testing of smart systems that are capable of operating a fleet of self-driving minibuses in urban environments. These solutions should be all-inclusive: software, hardware, fleet and services. The procuring partners play an important role by combining their efforts in supporting the market to develop such innovative systems and by providing a first customer test reference where new types of automated last-mile solutions enter the European market. In this way, FABULOS not only demonstrates a use case scenario where public authorities can act as innovation demanders but also a reference model for transforming inherently rigid, inflexible and inexperienced procuring entities (such as small Municipalities) into innovation accelerators in high tech sectors. In general, FABULOS shows how public entities must be prepared and motivated in a diversity of cross-domain interventions in order to procure and host innovations.
Resources needed
In total, FABULOS procurement budget reaches around 5,500,000 Euros (including VAT). The maximum budget for individual suppliers involved in all three phases is over 1,000,000 million Euros (including VAT).
Evidence of success
The FABULOS Pre-Commercial Procurement process generated new business liaisons and spin-off enterprises, enabling firms to develop innovative products and enter the European market. Moreover, FABULOS partners have been invited to present the project in numerous high-profile events and conferences, such as the Automated Mobility Conference in Brussels. As a result, many cities have showed interest in FABULOS as a suitable and viable solution for their urban transport challenges.
Potential for learning or transfer
The procurement of a solution (service-type procurement) instead of software (product-type procurement) is needed to create an analogous model with how the public transport authorities are currently procuring the (non-autonomous) bus lines. Through the learnings of the project, cities can be trained in how to procure Intelligent Transport Systems that are required to operate in parallel with traditional transport systems in a unified service line. Moreover, FABULOS showcases how public entities must be prepared and motivated in a diversity of cross-domain interventions to procure and host innovations. In more detail, they can gain insights in a) opening data and service interfaces for private companies to build and run their services, b) providing exemptions, testing grounds and other facilities to companies to test their solutions and c) reacting in an agile way to innovations and opportunities by quickly removing the barriers of innovation created by old regulation and practices.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
Organisation
Municipality of Lamia
Greece
Sterea Elláda
Contact
EU Projects Coordinator