Europe Watch

Driverless trucks on the roads sooner than we might think: An EU-backed project is investigating what autonomous freight could look like if driverless trucks were able to take to the roads, carrying goods and crossing borders, in spite of the complexity around varying company regulations and road signs that are difficult to read.

For a human driver, a dusty sign or one with paint peeling off would still be possible for them to read; but for an autonomous truck equipped with camera, LiDAR and radar technologies that enable it to view the world as a human would, this would be immensely challenging.

The MODI project, which began in October 2022 and will be running until March 2026, will be addressing this challenge, among others. It is looking at Level 4 autonomy, which refers to vehicles operating in self-driving mode without human oversight, but with the capability for intervention if something goes wrong.

With a total budget of €28 million, 34 organisations taking part and spanning eight countries, it represents a comprehensive exploration of autonomous transport. Its overall objective is to accelerate the adoption of connected, cooperative and automated mobility (CCAM) vehicle technologies for logistics and overcoming existing barriers to accelerate rollout.

These barriers include infrastructure pitfalls, liability insurance, and a regulatory framework that would allow increased adoption of self-driving vehicles, but done so safely.

MODI is focusing on five use cases for logistics; port operations, motorway to harbour, hub-to-hub, border to port, and the MODI CCAM test corridor from Rotterdam to Oslo.

The project marked an achievement earlier this month, when it managed a successful cross-border operation at the Ørje border between Sweden and Norway, making it the first time an autonomous crossing had taken place. Autonomous bordering crossing is especially challenging because of different regulations, and issues such as different road signage and customs procedures.

Einride, a technology partner, integrated its hardware and software systems with Norway’s digital customs solution, including its Enride Driver, an autonomous drive stack, and the Control Tower, an intelligent platform for fleet management and oversight.

It was supported by Tolletaten, the Norwegian Customs Service, who see real benefit to be had from automating some of these processes.

The Norwegian arm of the MODI project will run through to March 2026 and result in technical performance reports, socio-economic impact assessments, infrastructure adaptation guidelines, and sustainable business models.