The Greek city of Trikala, located in central Greece with a population of about 76,000 was selected as the first in the world to test driverless buses in an urban environment, as part of the CityMobil2, a pilot program for automated road transport systems.

The news of the city’s selection were announced during a press conference on Friday by Christoforos Rombos, the head of the municipality company e-Trikala SA that will be responsible for the project.

The Trikala project is the largest European pilot of CityMobil2, a EU project that is setting up a platform for automated road transport systems to be implemented in several urban environments across the continent. The project will run on a trial basis from September 2015 until February 2016.

Automated transport systems are made up of vehicles operating without a driver in collective mode. They are deemed to play a useful role in the transport mix as they can supply a good transport service (individual or collective) in areas of low or dispersed demand complementing the main public transport network.

According to the European program’s official site, the city of Trikala plans to transform the centre into a pedestrian area and to provide parking facilities around the edge of the city centre. Therefore, it is considering implementing an automated transport system to carry people between car parks, bus terminal and city centre. Elderly users going to the general hospital, to the local market and to other public services in the city centre will notably be targeted for this service.