Drive2TheFuture

Drive2TheFuture is a project that aims to prepare ‘drivers’, travellers and vehicle operators of the future to accept and use connected, cooperative and automated transport modes.Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Drive2TheFuture was set up in May 2019 and will run for 36 months.

Today’s vehicles – in all modes of transport – are becoming increasingly connected and cooperative, as well as automated. This raises a number of issues about the role of the ‘driver’ (or operator, rider, pilot, captain) in such vehicles.

In particular, human-machine interaction is becoming increasingly complex in an environment with higher levels of both qualitative and quantitative information, automated data exchange (into and out of the vehicle) and increasing levels of automation (systems, operations, etc.).

This project addresses in a balanced way the awareness and acceptance of automated vehicle ‘drivers’, the relevant fleet operators, key stakeholders and the general public.

To achieve its goal, it models the behaviour of different automated vehicle ‘drivers’and prognoses acceptance for several automated driving scenarios in 12 pilots across Europe.

The pilots will cover all automated transportation modes (car, PTW, truck, bus, minibus, rail, workboat and drones) and involve driving/riding/rail simulators, VR/AR simulation toolkits, test tracks and real-world environments, in which over 1000 AV drivers/passengers, 200 AV operators and 20,000 involved citizens will experience automation.