AIthena

Trustworthy AI for connected and automated mobility

The Artificial Intelligence: Trustworthy, Explainable and Accountable (AIthena) project advanced the development of transparent, safe and human-centred AI for connected and automated mobility. The project tackled the “black-box” problem in AI, improving explainability, accountability and safety in automated transport systems.

Funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe programme, AIthena developed practical solutions to make AI systems in vehicles and traffic management more transparent and reliable.

Project funded by the Swiss Confederation

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement number 101076754.

IRU's role

IRU represented the operational perspective of the road transport sector, promoting human-centred design, robust data governance and clear accountability in AI deployment.

Our work focused on ensuring that advanced AI technologies are understandable, auditable and fit for real-world use by transport operators.

AIthena delivered a methodology to assess fairness, transparency, accountability and privacy in AI-based systems and applied it in four connected and automated mobility use cases:

Trustworthy perception systems for reliable pedestrian detection
Extended situational awareness for collision prediction
Human-understandable decision-making for vehicles
AI-based traffic management for safer, more efficient and cleaner networks

Project results

The project turned research into operational value. It produced open datasets, toolkits and transparency documentation to support system evaluation and procurement. It also developed privacy-preserving data-sharing templates and measurable indicators for safety, efficiency and emissions, enabling evidence-based decisions on automation investments.

IRU continues to translate AIthena’s research into practical guidance for fleet managers and policymakers, ensuring that EU initiatives, such as the AI Act, support explainable, trustworthy and operationally viable AI in transport.

Access project results and public deliverables