DIGITALEUROPE’s use cases and principles for the EU Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy

Executive summary

Automated and connected mobility will lead us to better road safety, a reduction of fuel consumption, better environmental stewardship and increased public satisfaction.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed the importance of new mobility concepts that build on connectivity and automation. Digital technologies have kept our economy functioning while protecting citizens, as in the case of last-mile delivery, automated transport and sanitation robots (i.e. drones) used in hospitals. They will now be a key ally in achieving a safe, resilient, sustainable and smart mobility ecosystem in Europe in the long-term. The Commission must recognise the critical role of digital in transport and fully unlock their potential in its upcoming Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy.

To achieve that, we recommend the EU to focus on:

• Promote a data partnership culture in Europe while respecting contractual freedom in this space;

• Recognise the crucial role of digital technologies in driving down CO2 emissions to serve the Green Deal goals in mobility;

• Ensure harmonisation and coherence in any possible regulatory initiative relevant for mobility, such as on Artificial Intelligence (AI);

• Speed up the deployment of digital infrastructure in mobility, embracing 5G solutions and replacements of radio systems in urban railways.

Europe as a smart mobility pioneer

Digitalisation is a driving force for sustainable mobility. It is also a key enabler for innovation in road and air transport. We strongly recommend the Commission to consider the following in its mobility measures to come:

• Promote a data partnership culture. Partnerships will encourage the creation of new business models based on B2B and B2G data-driven services, whose potential to boost transport sustainability is large. The building blocks of a data partnership culture lie in strong data literacy skills and industry-driven standardisation aligned with global initiatives and fora. The EU should guarantee them. Importantly, any EU effort in should respect the value of contractual arrangements.

• Place digital technologies at the core of any measure to make transport more sustainable. Automation and connectivity solutions can make the EU a global pioneer in reducing CO2 emissions to serve the Green Deal goals. They should spearhead EU efforts to optimise infrastructure capacity, make transport inter-modal, improve traffic management and launch next-generation shared mobility solutions.

• Ensure harmonisation and coherence in any possible regulatory initiative relevant for mobility, especially in the following:

• • Artificial intelligence and road safety: any Commission initiative stemming from the AI White Paper should not lead to duplication nor inconsistency with applicable road vehicle legislation. It is key any regulatory approval applicable to AI continue to be defined within the framework of the existing Type-Approval rules, which have proved their worth. They help to build consumer trust in automation technologies, which is fundamental to deploy automated vehicles across European roads. Ensuring regulatory coherence will speed up the deployment of automated road vehicles to reduce traffic fatalities. The EU has already done a lot to bring them down, but more is needed 25.000 people are still killed in road traffic accidents every year in Europe. In this regard, we welcome the Commission’s efforts on future EU safety requirements through Type-Approval rules for automated vehicles, both at EU and international level.
• • Air transport: the Commission should finalise the update of the Single European Sky legislation and help restore confidence in passenger air travel post-pandemic. It should also provide clarity of the regulatory framework around drones for last-mile delivery.
• Speed up the deployment of digital infrastructure. Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) for Transport in the MFF and the Next Generation EU funds should accelerate the deployment of cutting-edge 5G network technology, which will spur the development of new connected mobility solutions. Funding should embrace, too, the creation of 5G coordinators and measures to foster economic synergies between 5G infrastructure and road V2X infrastructure. They would be critical to upgrade traffic management systems.

• We also need in Europe an investment mechanism that, firmly anchored on technology neutrality, seeks to replace radio systems used by infrastructure providers and vehicles in urban railways. Upgrading these radio systems would allow their seamless integration into the future multimodal Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) envisaged in the European Commission Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM) strategy.