A pilot project to operate the country's first intercity autonomous tram has been launched on the route between Yekaterinburg and Verkhnyaya Pyshma. This section was chosen for a reason: it has high passenger traffic and is already equipped with modern infrastructure, including upgraded tram tracks and a fully digitalized depot.
The vehicle is equipped with advanced machine vision and artificial intelligence systems that allow it to analyze the traffic situation in real time. If an obstacle is detected on the track, the tram automatically reduces speed and stops at a safe distance — from 7 to 10 meters from the object. All maintenance processes in the digital depot are also carried out without direct human involvement.
In December 2025, Verkhnepyshminsky Tram Company applied to include the Sverdlovsk Region in an experimental legal regime aimed at introducing autonomous transport. If the application is approved, the region will join Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod as pilot sites for scaling such technologies.
Read more on this topic:
- The Ministry of Transport is confident that fully autonomous trams will appear in the Russian Federation within the next two years
- The Chinese are taking on Chelyabinsk: the construction of a metro tram, a hybrid of a metro and a tram, is being resumed in the city
- The first autonomous tram "Lion Cub-Moscow" has traveled more than 18 thousand kilometers around the capital
