MILLA has won a major international tender for the town of Helmond. This ambitious programme, for a city of 100,000 inhabitants, will be spread over 3 years to set up a circuit for MILLA’s autonomous public transport shuttle.
MILLA provides a turnkey service, including the shuttle. The remote supervision system and the driving authorisations for the route.
MILLA will begin by setting up an autonomous road transport service on the industrial estate. It will link a mobility hub (BZOB) and serve a bus route zone with no public transport service.
This will be followed by a second project in a more complex traffic environment, with traffic lights, intersections, cycle lanes, etc. Finally, a third project will be set up in the city centre.
So 3 circuits will open up, incorporating increasingly complex traffic environments and habitats.
This comprehensive 7-year programme is a forerunner of the urban mobility of the future in urban and suburban areas.
According to Frédéric Mathis, Chairman of MILLA: “The town of Helmond has an international reputation among all those working in the field of mobility and autonomous vehicles. It is home to a leading Automotive research centre 1 [1]. MILLA is therefore particularly proud to have won this international call for tenders, in which a number of European players have positioned themselves.”
The design and configuration of MILLA’s vehicles, with their hybrid driving capability (autonomous vs. traditional), the maturity of its technology and its production and supervision capabilities, impressed the decision-makers favourably during the call for tenders.
MILLA’s involvement covers, as always, including abroad, obtaining traffic permits from the relevant national administrative authorities.
The service is scheduled to open to the public in 2025, for the first batch of the programme.
Initially, the service will be completely free of charge, with an operator on board to familiarise people with this vehicle of the future, and to test people’s reactions to and acceptability of this mode of transport. It should be running in full remote mode, with no human presence at the front, some 12 months later.
[1] Helmond’s Automotive Campus – located in the Brainport area – is the national and international hub, meeting point and business location for automotive (technology) and intelligent mobility.