On 4 March 2026, the official kick-off meeting of the flagship project ROBERTA took place in Steyr. The 19 consortium partners from research, industry and public transport gathered at the University of Applied Sciences Upper Austria to define the roadmap for the coming four project years.
The event focused on three thematic priorities: the technical validation of the sensor architecture for Level 4 buses, the development of a harmonised safety framework in accordance with UNECE Regulation No. 157, and the establishment of an open data platform between the four pilot regions of Styria, Carinthia, Upper Austria and Tyrol.
Doris Straub, MSc, from the Automobile Cluster was enthusiastic: »ROBERTA is not just a research project — it is Austria’s commitment to automated mobility as a pillar of the public transport of the future.« The first test drives are planned for the fourth quarter of 2026 in the Lavanttal.