Learn how to deploy your first autonomous vehicle with POLIS partner Pendel Mobility

POLIS partner Pendel Mobility launches a guide for the future leaders of autonomous mobility. The guide, written by autonomous vehicle service provider Pendel Mobility, shares practical recommendations and insights for public authorities based on the first autonomous vehicle pilot in Barcelona.

Titled Deploying your first autonomous vehicle, Pendel’s guide shares operational data, practical insights and recommendations for future autonomous use cases. It aims to make autonomous mobility more accessible to public authorities through lessons from a successful autonomous vehicle pilot.

“Between site assessments, procurement, permits and authorisation, mobility providers often face a draining and complicated journey to deployment. We hope this guide will be a valuable starting point for authorities to understand the path to the future of safe, cost-effective mobility” said Christian Riester, Co-Founder of Pendel Mobility. 

The guide’s recommendations come from Pendel Mobility’s deployment of an autonomous shuttle in the Port of Barcelona in May 2022. A first for the city, the pilot successfully linked the Port of Barcelona’s car park to its office headquarters for a month, receiving widespread media coverage. The pilot was funded by the EU project Ride2Autonomy, in which POLIS is a knowledge partner.

The message to public authority transport providers? Now is the time to prepare an autonomous mobility roadmap to capture the value that autonomous vehicles are increasingly capable of delivering. 

As recent advanced deployments in the US show, the technology powering autonomous vehicles has leapt forward in the past decade. Public authorities in Europe must prepare infrastructure, safety operations and use cases today to avoid the technology driving off without them.

“If future planning is neglected, even the public authorities that succeed in getting an autonomous vehicle onto the road will see limited long-term value. This is why we encourage public authorities to begin long-term planning today,” said Giel Mertens, Co-Founder of Pendel Mobility

Pendel Mobility is a leading European provider of autonomous vehicles-as-a-service, delivering end-to-end autonomous needs from planning to implementation to future-proofing. Pendel’s most recent deployment substituted bus services on a live route between a tram stop and a university campus in Hannover, Germany. The start-up is a spin-off from the Future Mobility team of European innovation consultancy Bax & Company.

How can I learn more?

The report is available to read here. Contact Pendel about their autonomous vehicle services for public authorities and site operators here.