Technological and infrastructural prerequisites for the deployment of the first shared Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Test Project in Malta

Abstract

Automated vehicles are leading to a significant revolution in road transportation systems, with extensive challenges to mobility through several factors, including economic, legal, social, psychological, and technological aspects. Various countries around Europe have tested and piloted autonomous vehicles on their roads and subsequently published research on their approach towards reaching such goals and also on findings from their various projects. However smaller peripheral countries tend to fall behind, whenever innovative technologies are being researched and tested. Research on Malta’s level of preparedness for the introduction of autonomous vehicles is limited. This research project deals with an analysis of the expected impacts of shared autonomous vehicles on the physical and digital road infrastructures and assesses the current infrastructure preparedness on a local scale. The project aims to provide Malta with a new mobility solution, that is sustainable and technologically advanced, that will at the same time increase the users’ choices of alternative transport. Through various meetings and consultations with local stakeholders, it emerges that Malta is still in the very initial planning stages for the introduction of Autonomous Vehicles and that an immediate intervention on Malta’s current physical and digital infrastructure is required to enable the actual implementation of shared autonomous mobility field testing. The outcomes of this research project include a roadmap and recommendations to local authorities, which shall pave the way for the first shared autonomous shuttle pilot project to take place on Maltese roads.