CAMINO-2

NWE’s Public transport authorities (PTAs) and operators (PTOs) face challenges maintaining services in rural and functional urban areas (FUA) due to rising costs, fluctuating demand, and an EU-wide bus driver shortage. 
Draghi’s 2024 report to the EC highlights Shared Automated Vehicles (SAVs) as a flexible, low-emission solution, but states that adoption is blocked by outdated Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), low public engagement, and insufficient organisational capacity. Without a “big push” towards SAVs (Von der Leyen, 2025), Europe risks falling behind US and China, where robotaxis are commercial in 15+ cities (Waymo: 250k trips/week in 2025). 

 CAMINO-2 addresses this strategy-to-practice gap.

Building on CAMINO1’s long-term strategies for SAV planning in SO2.1, it focuses on operational uptake in SO1.1 to plan, validate, and scale state-of-the-art solutions for deployment, fostering a viable NWE market for SAV services. 10 partners from all 7 NWE regions will: 

• Co-develop the SAV Blueprint Action Plan (SAV-BAP) (WP1): A flexible planning template, built on CAMINO-1 strategies, that empowers PTAs/PTOs to create their own local action plans for SAV deployment, co-created with 35+ members of the SAV Innovation Alliance. 
• Validate the SAV-BAP in 4 complementary Living Labs (WP2): Pilots will test cutting-edge SAV tech and PPP models across diverse NWE contexts (rural, suburban and metropolitan services to automated bus depots) via a quadruple helix approach. Learnings inform the SAV Implementation Toolkit (SAV-IT), a practical ‘how-to’ guide for procurement, operations, and navigating legal frameworks. 
• Scale adoption via the Ambassador Programme (WP3), training 7 external organisations to use the BAP and IT, creating a cohort of skilled regional multipliers to ensure NWE-wide uptake. CAMINO-2 pioneers the next wave of public transport, uniting NWE's leading SAV actors to implement scalable, citizen-centric solutions for the region's diverse mobility needs.