1 comment.Call for Proposals issued for autonomous electric bus pilot project
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A Call for Proposals (CFP) has been issued by Malta Public Transport for the lease of a fully electric, zero-emission autonomous bus (Level 4) to be deployed in Malta and Gozo as part of the metaCCAZE project, a Horizon Europe initiative funded by the European Union under grant agreement No. 101139678.
MPT said that the project marks an important milestone in Malta’s efforts to embrace sustainable mobility solutions while exploring cutting-edge transport technologies.
The autonomous bus will operate across selected routes in Malta and Gozo, with the pilot designed to assess the feasibility of scaling such services in the future.
MPT explained that the lease will cover a period of 12 months, with the bus expected to be delivered, commissioned, and fully operational by 30 April 2026. The service will be evaluated based on key factors such as accessibility, cost-effectiveness, safety, and equity.
Malta Public Transport currently operates a fleet of 500 buses, 36 of which are fully electric, covering over 36 million kilometres annually with a team of more than 1,600 employees.
It advised that interested manufacturers are invited to submit their proposals in line with the published requirements and deadlines. To receive the full Call for Proposals document, interested parties may email procurement.e.project@publictransport.com.mt.
This initiative is part of the metaCCAZE project which is co-financed under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, within the Climate, Energy and Mobility cluster.
File photo: Gozo News/Alain Salvary
This is a crazy idea for an island like Malta with narrow congested roads, uncontrolled parking and poor driving habits. It works fine in large cities with dedicated bus lanes and large urban and suburban areas where citizens follow the driving laws but one has to question how safe it will be on the winding country routes and steep hills of Gozo. In the US companies that started autonomous taxi services have now abandoned then as being to expensive to monitor and the experience of autonomous Tesla cars is not good. It works in China because the streets are wide and modern and it is very much a rules based society.