Last-mile logistics operations in cities can increase traffic congestion, cause safety problems for pedestrians, bikers, and couriers, and contribute to air and noise pollution. To tackle these challenges, the LogiSmile partners are piloting a fully autonomous delivery system in three pilot cities: Esplugues de Llobregat, Spain, Hamburg in Germany, and Debrecen in Hungary.

LogiSmile will build an autonomous hub vehicle (AHV) that works with smaller autonomous delivery devices (ADD), which are essentially robots, and a remote back-end control centre which will manage communication between the main vehicle and other devices, collect data, optimise fleet operations and provide a fail-safe solution should a complex situation arise. 

The cities are assessing their infrastructure and legal framework to operate the system, revising their current traffic policies, and establishing a Code of Conduct to regulate human-autonomous vehicle interactions, including guidelines on sharing of data and interaction with third parties such as pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles.