MOBILITIES FOR EU Pilot Launches Spain’s First Autonomous Urban Bus
Image from IRF by Agostina Massarini
At the beginning of November, the MOBILITIES FOR EU consortium gathered in Madrid for its General Assembly, where partners reconnected in person, followed the launch of the Smart Urban Space at Mercamadrid, and exchanged directly with the Madrid pilot team.
The meeting continued in Valladolid, hosted by coordinator CARTIF, where partners reviewed the overall progress of the project’s pilots and Urban Mobility Labs, discussed upcoming deployment phases, aligned on data collection and evaluation plans, and refined the shared roadmap for the months ahead.
Coinciding with the General Assembly, Madrid celebrated a major project milestone with the launch of the Smart Urban Space at Mercamadrid, hosted by the Madrid City Council’s Digital Office and visited by the Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida Navasqüés.
During the event, mobility operator Alsa presented Spain’s first autonomous urban bus, which will begin carrying passengers in the coming weeks within the Mercamadrid premises.
This deployment is a flagship MOBILITIES FOR EU pilot, integrating a zero-emission, fully electric ZEV bus operating at SAE level 4+ autonomous driving (autonomous with a driver on board). With a capacity of 32 passengers, the vehicle represents a significant evolution from earlier autonomous shuttles in Spain, which typically seated 12 people.
The bus will run in one of the country’s most demanding operational contexts: Mercamadrid, a major logistics hub accessed daily by 20,000 people and over 15,000 vehicles. Its deployment showcases how advanced CCAM technologies can function reliably in high-traffic, real-world environments.
Within MOBILITIES FOR EU, Alsa is also collaborating with the Digital Office and Mercamadrid on a customer-centric research effort to map mobility needs across the site’s workforce and companies. The insights will support the creation of a new sustainable mobility model for the Mercamadrid ecosystem, designed to reduce private car use and introduce advanced, user-tailored solutions.
This pilot builds on Alsa’s autonomous shuttle service at the Autonomous University of Madrid’s Cantoblanco campus, operated since 2020 and internationally recognised as a landmark in CCAM innovation.
Author: MOBILITIES for EU
