The project addresses the issue of the majority of waste containers being only half-full when emptied while up to 10 per cent of them are overflowing.
The Estonian capital of Tallinn is deploying sensors in waste containers around the city to prevent containers from being overfilled and waste transport vehicles from running empty.
There aren't many news stories about Estonia, a tiny country in northern Europe. The Baltic Sea nation, which is only home to about 1.2 million people, is occasionally eclipsed by its larger eastern neighbour, Russia, despite having a smaller population.
In a nation that suffered greatly under Soviet rule for many years, Estonia's borders are being directly affected by the war between Russia and Ukraine. In 1991, when Estonia declared its independence from the Soviet Union, Ukraine was one of the first nations to do so. Since then, Estonia has been a steadfast ally of Ukraine.
Read more: Why Estonia became a model for digital transformation
As well as exploring the use of an autonomous bus via a 1.8km pre-mapped route, the Estonian capital is also lowering speed limits on 80 streets to increase safety.
Tallinn is launching a free, self-driving bus service on the intra-block roads between Mustamäe tee, Tammsaare tee and Ehitajate tee.
In a separate announcement, the Estonian capital is also lowering speed limits to increase safety on 80 streets.
Read more: EE: Tallinn launches free, self-driving bus pilot
Called MiCa, the vehicle developed by Auve Tech, is equipped with seven lidar sensors and 10 cameras and has been designed for use in all weather conditions.
Estonian tech company Auve Tech is launching a next-generation self-driving shuttle that allows driving in various weather and traffic conditions.
ch has already agreed a strategic collaboration with SoftBank subsidiary Boldly to develop a Japanese-specification model of the vehicle, with a view to having it running on public roads by the end of 2023.
Read more: Estonian company launches next-gen autonomous shuttle
The self-driving vehicle will be servicing the route in cooperation with the City of Tartu, the University of Tartu and the companies Traffest OÜ, AS Bercman Technologies and Modern Mobility OÜ. "Developing services in cooperation with companies and the university is a great opportunity for the city. Self-driving demand-based vehicles will be a natural part of our public transport system in the future. Therefore, it makes sense to test and develop the technologies with different pilot projects already now," said Raimond Tamm, Deputy Mayor of Tartu.
According to Tambet Matiisen, Head of Technology at the University of Tartu's Autonomous Driving Lab, this is the most ambitious self-driving project in Estonia. "For this project, we mapped 66 kilometres of lanes, which is unprecedentedly the largest driving area in Estonia. Within these lanes, we will be able to travel from any point A to B, not just along a fixed route. We will also be able to travel at higher speeds: while self-driving city buses travel at up to 20 km/h, our speed can reach 50 km/h," said Matiisen. He added that the car does not yet drive completely alone – in addition to the passengers, there is also a security driver and a computer operator. Nevertheless, the vehicle can operate at least 90% of the time without intervention.
Read more: EE: Self-driving public transport vehicle available in Tartu in April