The Scientific Research Institute of Railway Transport (NIIAS) has unveiled technical vision blocks for serial equipping of highly automated "Lastochka" trains, according to the Rollingstock Telegram channel. The solution is designed for operation with the third level of automation (UA 3/GoA 3) — the last before full driverless control.

The system includes a block with four video cameras, two lidars capable of recognizing infrastructure objects and obstacles at a distance of up to 450–500 meters, and a thermal imager with a range of up to 1.5 km.

As Pavel Mylnikov, Deputy General Director of NIIAS, stated, a technical project and design documentation for equipping "Lastochka" trains have already been developed in cooperation with the train manufacturer "Uralskie Lokomotivy". By the end of the year, 10 such systems are planned to be installed on trains operating on the Moscow Central Circle (MCC). However, Russian Railways noted that the mass replication of the technology depends on the holding's investment program.

In May 2026, supervised operation of the "Lastochka" electric train with the third level of automation was completed on the MCC. During the trial operation, the train covered almost 200 thousand km, performing more than 3.6 thousand trips. According to Mylnikov, during this time, reliability indicators were improved 20-fold — now no more than one false alarm is recorded per 200 km of track, and drivers practically do not interfere with the system's operation.

Russian Railways also reported plans to equip 60 electric trains on the MCC with automatic driving systems with full driverless automation level UA 4/GoA 4 after 2029. This will allow reducing the headway to 3 minutes, which is impossible without increasing the level of automation.