Self-driving Shuttle Bus Use Case in City of Tallinn

Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are entering from test areas to the streets, which is one of the key components of smart cities and the future of mobility as a service (Maas). In 2020, two AV services were operated in Tallinn. This paper focuses on one of the services, including how it was set up. The route was set up in Ülemiste City, a tech park with 10,000 people daily working in the area. It connected the offices with the airport and a shopping centre. Autonomous shuttle ise Auto was used for the service (streets with heavy traffic, including some complex crossings). Our findings associated with the Ülemiste experiment in the context of legal requirements set upon autonomous vehicles to be street legal are pointed out. Events that took place during the operation (including an accident) are addressed. Summary of the feedback from clients is presented. Further studies should focus on the extended concept of smart cities with a roadmap for the nearest future.