Italy pilots self-driving cars in a car sharing program

A2A, along with its partners, announced on Wednesday that Italy had hosted a groundbreaking test of an autonomous vehicle for car-sharing as part of the utility's project in Brescia.

Stellantis' electric FIAT500 city car left the charger, drove a kilometre in fully autonomous mode at a maximum of 30 km/h, and then stopped at a park area to simulate the experience of transporting a customer.

Organisers said that it was the very first test of this kind in Europe.

Each test will also be monitored by an onboard supervisor and a control center. Safety cars will be in the traffic with the vehicles to alert road users of autonomous driving tests on public roads.

A2A's charging stations are able to charge the self-driving vehicle without any human involvement.

A2A CEO Renato mazzoncini stated that the project A2A is working on in collaboration with Politecnico di Milano and Italy's National Sustainable Mobility Centre aims to contribute towards decarbonising cities and reducing traffic, as well as promoting environmental sustainability.

Mazzoncini said, "Europe can't lag behind China or the United States. We expect an engagement at a European-level after this experimentation phase."

The testing phase will continue until November with one or two tests per month. The test area includes the historic centre of Brescia and surrounding districts.

Matteo Sergio Savaresi, of Politecnico, said that in order to go from an experimental phase into a real application of self-driving for car sharing we need to remove the requirements of a safety driver. This is permitted by European legislation. (Editing by Keith Weir).

(source: Reuters)