The roads of the Generalitat, test bench for AI and autonomous driving

Autonomous driving has gone from starring in science fiction movies to being a reality, and Catalonia wants to be at the forefront of its development. With this objective, the Generalitat's road network will serve for four years as a test bench for AI applied to autonomous driving, road management, and road safety, within a European-wide project.

Framed within the European project linked to AI Elliot, the initiative will involve a global investment of 25 million euros across Europe, in a project in which thirty universities, companies, research centers, and institutions from 12 countries will participate. Also within the framework of the Horizon Europe program, the project aims to advance new European artificial intelligence models.

In this context, the Conselleria de Territori of the Generalitat will put the physical and digital infrastructure of the roads under its ownership at the service of the initiative, in order to develop algorithms and test AI models.

In addition, the department led by Sílvia Paneque will provide network data to facilitate infrastructure monitoring. This data will be used to train autonomous driving models and simulators promoted by other project partners.

Thus, the initiative aims to facilitate the promotion of new AI capabilities in Europe, through real data and specific use cases, also linked to sustainable mobility. In this way, the Generalitat's road network will contribute to developing these AI models that will mark the future of driving and, ultimately, of mobility and more sustainable and autonomous models on a European scale.