General Assembly and Presentation of Spain’s First Autonomous Urban Bus
On 19 November 2025, CARNET participated in a key week for the European project MOBILITIES FOR EU, coinciding with the project’s General Assembly and the public presentation of Spain’s first autonomous urban bus in Madrid. The gathering offered a key opportunity for partners to reconnect, assess project progress, and coordinate the next stages toward the deployment of innovative and sustainable mobility solutions.
The General Assembly started in Madrid, where consortium members met face to face and visited the newly inaugurated Smart Urban Space at Mercamadrid, engaging directly with the local pilot team. The programme then moved to Valladolid, hosted by the project coordinator CARTIF, where partners reviewed the status of the different pilots and Urban Mobility Labs, discussed forthcoming deployment activities, aligned on data collection and impact evaluation methodologies, and updated the joint roadmap for the coming months.
At the same time, Madrid marked a significant achievement within the project with the unveiling of Spain’s first autonomous urban bus, presented during the launch of the Smart Urban Space at Mercamadrid. The event, organised by the Madrid City Council’s Digital Office and attended by the city’s Mayor, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, featured the presentation of a fully electric, zero-emission autonomous bus operated by Alsa, functioning at SAE level 4+ with a safety driver on board.
With room for 32 passengers, this vehicle represents a clear advancement beyond previous autonomous shuttle experiences in Spain, which were generally limited to smaller capacities. Its operation will take place in one of the country’s most complex mobility environments: Mercamadrid, a large logistics hub that receives approximately 20,000 people and more than 15,000 vehicles every day. This setting provides a highly demanding real-world context in which to demonstrate the reliability and maturity of connected and automated mobility technologies.
As part of MOBILITIES FOR EU, Alsa is also collaborating with the Madrid Digital Office and Mercamadrid on a user-focused research initiative to analyse mobility needs across the site. The insights gathered will contribute to the development of a new sustainable mobility model for the area, aimed at decreasing private vehicle use and introducing innovative, tailored mobility solutions for workers and companies.
From CARNET’s role as a project partner, this milestone highlights the strategic importance of MOBILITIES FOR EU as a large-scale European initiative that goes beyond technological development, placing strong emphasis on real-world testing, user engagement, and measurable impact. The activities carried out during this week represent another important step toward translating research into concrete solutions for more sustainable, efficient, and inclusive urban mobility.
