(L-R) Raphaël Frank, Senior Research Scientist, Head of UBIX Research Group; Gamal Elghazaly, Research Scientist; Mehdi Testouri, R&D Specialist; Credit: Ali Sahib, Chronicle.lu

On Friday 14 November 2025, the Interdisciplinary Research Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) of the University of Luxembourg invited members of the press, including Chronicle.lu, to a demonstration of its new autonomous car in Luxembourg-Kirchberg.

The core team, led by Senior Research Scientist and UBIX Research Group Head Raphaël Frank, began by explaining the underlying technology and research behind the vehicle. This was followed by an automated driving demonstration along the team's usual 3 km loop in Kirchberg and a tele-operated driving demonstration behind the JFK building.

Speaking to the press, Raphaël Frank noted that one of the main application areas at the SnT's UBIX - Ubiquitous and Intelligent Systems Research Group is connected and automated vehicle driving. He explained that the first demonstration was similar to one held a couple of years ago, albeit with "some improvements". The 3 km loop allows the car to drive autonomously on public roads. Press members were able to ride in the vehicle for five to ten minutes each.

The second demonstration focused on tele-operated driving, which Raphaël Frank described as an "increasingly important topic" and one of the case studies included in the government strategy. "Why do we want to control a car remotely? We don't want to drive [it] remotely all the time, but autonomous vehicles are driving well in 98% of all cases," he said, adding that the remaining 2% still require occasional human supervision or control. "That's why, in case we have commercial deployment like robo-taxis, there needs to be a way to control the vehicles in case there is no operator inside," he explained, clarifying that the goal is still to "get the operator out, because that is the only case that makes sense economically". Nevertheless, someone should monitor the fleet of vehicles and intervene when necessary.

The research project is testing this concept in collaboration with POST Luxembourg, which provides access to a "state-of-the-art" 5G network for testing, and with OHMIO, a company currently operating shuttles in Esch-Belval. This will serve as a case study for the project.

For a look back at the 2022 demonstration, see https://www.chronicle.lu/category/research-r-d/43176-press-get-1st-ride-on-snts-experimental-self-driving-car