Alsa launches the first autonomous bus operating in Spain.

Madrid, October 20, 2020. - Mobility operator Alsa is launching this week the first autonomous bus circulating in Spain with passengers on a route open to traffic, on the Cantoblanco campus of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM).

After the pilot phase of this pioneering and innovative project, which has been developed jointly with the CRTM, the UAM and the DGT, it is now fully operational to offer UAM students a sustainable mobility alternative for their journeys around the campus, as the service is provided in a 100% electric autonomous vehicle.

This is a state-of-the-art EZ10 vehicle with capacity for up to 12 passengers, accessible for PRM, which runs a 3.7-kilometre route connecting the various facilities and centres on the campus, a space in which 30,000 people and 6,000 vehicles circulate every day.

Alsa is registering this project, which constitutes a milestone in the history of mobility in Spain and opens the door to the development of new autonomous mobility projects in our country, within its strategy to offer innovative mobility solutions that are increasingly sustainable.

INTEGRATED INTO THE CRTM NETWORK

The new service is integrated into the CRTM network, as a regular service of the public transport system of the Community of Madrid. It operates every working day from 7.15 am to 3.15 pm, with its head station at the Cercanías station. It runs on a specifically signposted lane, where its seven stops are located, all of them accessible according to the CRTM's accessibility criteria. Madrid thus becomes the first Spanish community to integrate a line of these characteristics into its public transport network.

The Cantoblanco campus will also be the first in Spain to implement this mobility solution. The UAM has been in charge of providing support for the development of different research and innovation programmes linked to the project, guaranteeing that it has solid basic research in different areas of knowledge, as a basic pillar for the success of this pioneering initiative in our country. The UAM, as well as the entire research and business network that makes up the UAM-CSIC Campus of Excellence, constitute one of the most solid and recognised R&D&I environments at European level.

The launch of this stable mobility service for UAM students has also had the collaboration of the DGT. It will allow it to carry out an evaluation and monitoring of the operation of this autonomous driving bus, and to know first-hand the technology in the performance of the service, a unique experience in Spain that has come from the hand of public-private collaboration that will be extended to more projects in the future.

The operation of the first Autonomous Bus in Spain represents for Alsa a significant step in the development of R&D&I projects and in its environmental strategy to lead the transition to zero emission fleets in our country, and is part of its positioning as an operator of sustainable, multimodal and connected mobility.

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