The Navya autonomous shuttle, which was demonstrated as part of the Avenue project in Bascharage Romain Gamba

The Navya autonomous shuttle, which was demonstrated as part of the Avenue project in Bascharage Romain Gamba

The Avenue project, funded through the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme, brings together 16 partners from 7 European countries. Its vision is to introduce disruptive public transport with the hopes of improving overall passenger experience. Through the project, autonomous transport demos are carried out, with the vision to deploy autonomous mini-bus fleets. 

In addition to Luxembourg, three other cities--Copenhagen, Lyon and Geneva--are tasked with carrying out similar demos, as the locations all met the criteria of being areas with low- to medium-demand for such transport. An additional three cities will later be added.  

As Georges Hilbert, technical general director at Sales-Lentz, explained to L’essentiel, passengers could operate the autonomous shuttle shown during the Bascharage demo the same way they would a lift. “They press the button of their destination and have 20 seconds to sit down. The vehicle closes the door and starts automatically,” he said in the article, adding: “Users are convinced in 10 minutes.”

The Navya shuttles can seat up to 11, but factoring in standing room can accomodate up to 15. They can reach speeds of 45 km/h, but run on average 20 km/h. Navya, a company based in Lyon, estimates the global autonomous shuttle market will reach 34,000 vehicles by 2025. 

Autonomous shuttles--with operators on board--have already been operational in Pfaffenthal and Contern. But Avenue has a much larger vision. “The large-scale deployment of autonomous vehicles, combined with on-line services, user profiling and dynamic itinerary optimisation, will have a snow-ball disruption-effect on today’s public transport model,” it states on its website