From self-driving shuttles to lidar at intersections, the ITS European Congress 2025 brought smart mobility into the spotlight — with clarity, ambition, and real traction. Earlier, we have summarised the key themes and insights from the ITS European Congress 2025 in Seville. This follow-up feature offers a more visual, on-the-ground perspective. If the first article was the architecture, this is the texture: what it felt like to be there, and why it mattered.
A congress framed by purpose
The ITS European Congress 2025 opened in Seville not with grand predictions, but with grounded urgency. During the press conference on day one, high-level representatives from European institutions, government, cities, and industry made it clear: smart mobility is no longer a vision — it’s a shared responsibility, unfolding now.
Dr. Angelos Amditis, Chairman of ERTICO – ITS Europe, welcomed delegates by reaffirming the Congress’s role as a driver of Europe’s transport agenda. He thanked co-organisers — including the City of Seville, ITS Spain, and Spain’s Ministries of Transport and the Interior. He spoke of inclusivity as a core value of innovation: “Technology can serve to democratise and equalise rights, such as mobility accessibility in society.”
Álvaro Pimentel Siles, Seville’s Mobility Councillor, emphasised the host city’s ambition: “From Seville, we promote a model of a modern, urban, and connected city with the goal of making the city the capital of sustainable mobility in Southern Europe.” He highlighted local initiatives like the low-emission zone in Isla de la Cartuja and a plan for a fully electric public transport fleet by 2027.
Moumen Hamdouch of the European Commission focused on the policy landscape, outlining Europe’s Industrial Action Plan for the automotive sector and stressing the importance of public-private alignment.
From the industry side, Francisco Sánchez of CTAG introduced the technologies his team brought to Seville: a level 4 autonomous shuttle, cooperative valet parking, and live V2X deployments.
Offering a regional view, Ana Luz Jiménez Ortega, Provincial Traffic Chief and DGT Coordinator in Andalusia, traced Spain’s progress in traffic digitalisation. She outlined the evolution from basic road monitoring in the 1980s to today’s DGT 3.0 connectivity platform, which aggregates live safety and traffic data from across the country.
Joost Vantomme, CEO of ERTICO, closed the press conference with a forward-looking summary, highlighting the scope of the event: three plenaries, a packed technical program, live demos, and a new ITS Arena. «By turning dialogue into action and pilot projects into policy frameworks, the Congress accelerates the implementation of ITS. Through global participation, the Congress supports collaboration that transcends borders, essential for scalable and interoperable mobility solutions,» he said.
On the floor: from demos to dialogue
The exhibition pavilion at FIBES was a concentrated snapshot of where smart mobility stands today. The floor pulsed with technologies designed not for tomorrow, but for deployment at scale, now.
As tradition holds, ERTICO’s Partner Tour and Reception brought collaborators together — from cities and ministries to OEMs and startups — not just to celebrate innovation, but to align around strategy.
Among standout exhibitors:
- CTAG demonstrated AVP system
- DGT showcased national mobility platforms and connected cloud control tools
- SWARCO invited guests to a VR journey through its AI-powered traffic ecosystem
- Miovision highlighted V2X solutions aimed at lowering emissions and improving flow
- Auve Tech presented its MiCa shuttle, deployed globally and set to run without onboard safety operators later this year
- Ouster used AI-enhanced lidar to generate 3D heatmaps of intersections — a new way to analyse pedestrian behaviour and improve safety
- Monotch showed how their TLEX platform already reduces ambulance response time by giving green-light priority dynamically.
Outside, the city became part of the showcase. CTAG’s autonomous shuttle, running through Seville’s C-ITS corridor, offered live rides with level 4 autonomy and V2X communication.
What made Seville different and what is next
In a field often clouded by hype or stuck in pilot mode, Seville showed what real mobility in action looks like — visible, testable, and explainable. This Congress wasn’t just about imagining the future; it was about scaling what already works.
It wasn’t just about smart vehicles — it was about — it was about smart coordination, from curb to cloud.
From Seville’s sunlit corridors to Istanbul’s megacity networks — the next edition of the Congress will test everything at a different scale. But if Seville taught us anything, it’s that smart mobility isn’t waiting.
