Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has signed a decree establishing an experimental legal regime (EPR) for the use of self-driving trams in Moscow and St. Petersburg, the Ministry of Economic Development's press service reported.
The experiment involves the use of self-driving trams in urban environments, their maintenance, and diagnostics. Additionally, it is planned to train test drivers and operators.
The experimental program prepared by the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia on the initiative of the State Unitary Enterprise "Moscow Metro" is the first use of the EPR tool to test unmanned technologies on various types of urban passenger transport. The key condition we set for participants is the safety of the experiment, so the launch of unmanned trams on the route in the first stage will be necessarily accompanied by a test driver.
The EPR will last three years in St. Petersburg and Moscow. The first phase of the experiment assumes that the total mileage of trams will be at least 3,000 km (150 hours of operation). Operators will monitor the operation of the trams.
The main goal of the project is to improve the safety of passenger transportation. The EPR for launching self-driving trams is the first in the field of public transport. Previously, similar initiatives were applied to taxis.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that the first self-driving tram in Russia hit the streets of Moscow.
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