Bulgaria and Greece Collaborate on Advancing Autonomous Mobility with 5G Corridor Project

Bulgaria and Greece have joined forces in a partially EU-funded project to advance autonomous mobility in the area. As part of the initiative, 5G communication equipment will be installed along the Sofia-Thessaloniki road by 2025, facilitating the use of autonomous vehicles.

The project's objectives include enabling truck tracking and creating an environment for testing autonomous vehicles under real conditions along a predefined route without a driver. The Sofia-Thessaloniki 5G corridor, requiring an €11 million investment, receives half of its funding from the European Commission, with the remaining amount coming from a Bulgarian and a Greek mobile operator through private investment.

The project was initially established in 2018 with the participation of Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia, aiming to develop experimental cross-border 5G corridors for testing autonomous cars. Although Serbia is no longer involved, the project's current focus is to connect Sofia with the Greek port city of Thessaloniki and subsequently expand autonomous mobility across the main transport corridors of the Balkans.

The Sofia-Thessaloniki route will become operational once the Bulgarian and Greek operators interconnect their networks, allowing continuous cargo tracking even after crossing the border. The Bulgarian operator will automatically transfer all recorded truck data to Greece via a 5G mobile network, similar to how mobile phones function.