Driverless transport will cost some jobs and create others, the test is whether Europe can reskill fast enough, two-year EU study finds

CCAM-ERAS project maps the jobs that automated mobility will displace and create, as its Brussels final event closes two years of research into the socio-economic transition to driverless transport

A two-year research project into the impact of self-driving vehicles on European jobs finds a mixed picture: traditional driving and manual maintenance roles are set to decline as Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) advances, even as the transition creates new occupations the sector doesn't yet have people to fill. Europe's tight labour market means these losses will be offset to a large degree by new roles, but the real test, researchers found, is whether workers can be reskilled into the new roles fast enough to keep pace.

CCAM-ERAS, a Horizon Europe-funded project bringing together 13 partners across nine countries, set out to establish the social, technical and employment impacts of emerging self-driving technology. Its findings were presented in full at the project's final event in Brussels on 9 June 2026.

The project makes a number of recommendations including that employers, governments and education providers should the occupational profiles, and the wider longlist of twelve roles the project identifies, as the basis for training pathways now, ahead of demand. The project validated these findings through various stakeholder workshops and consultations and by delivering initial training material to stakeholders.

The clearest losses fall on truck and taxi drivers and manual maintenance roles, as automated systems take over more of the driving task itself. Alongside this decline, though, the macro-economic scenario tool developed through the research points to substantial task reconfiguration: drivers and technicians moving into supervisory, diagnostic and digitally supported roles, and entirely new positions emerging to plan, run, regulate and secure automated mobility systems. From an inventory of tasks across six real-world use cases, from port and terminal logistics to shared and public transport, the project identified twelve such occupations, clustered into four areas:

• Running CCAM day-to-day: customer service agents, fleet orchestrators, remote operations specialists, technicians, safety drivers
• Preparing the ground for deployment: infrastructure planning and engineering roles
• Policy and regulation: policy officers, insurance underwriters, app interface developers
• Building the underlying technology: AV systems engineers, compliance officers, cybersecurity specialists

The project cautions that skills gaps are already evident and expected to widen, as education and training systems adapt more slowly than the technology itself. That gap matters most for workers moving out of declining driving and maintenance roles, who will need clear pathways into the occupations the sector is creating if the transition is to be orderly rather than disruptive.

The urgent need to upskill public administrations, especially at the local city and regional level was also highlighted through the project. With one outcome being the design of a 2-day training seminar focused on advancing local governments understanding of regulation, authorisation and evaluation.

Project Lead Ioanna Kourounioti from Panteia said ‘“CCAM is not simply a technological transition; it will reshape jobs, skills and mobility systems across Europe. As project coordinator, Panteia is proud of the achievements and the knowledge developed within CCAM—ERAS that have brought together expertise from across the CCAM value chain to turn evidence into practical recommendations. Our shared ambition is to ensure that automated mobility develops in a way that creates public value, supports workers and delivers safe, sustainable and inclusive mobility for all’

Madalina Suta Head of Global Economic & Social Policy at Cambridge Econometrics said: This analysis shows that the employment effects of CCAM deployment are not uniform across countries, sectors or occupations. By using E3ME to assess different uptake scenarios, we were able to provide a more detailed picture of where negative labour-market impacts may emerge and where skills and transition planning will be most important. The dashboard also helps make these results more accessible, allowing stakeholders to explore the evidence by use case, country and time horizon.

Notes to editors

• CCAM-ERAS's White Paper, scenario analysis results dashboard, project video and full findings (employment modelling, skills foresight, socio-economic impact assessment and policy recommendations) are available via the project's website ccam-eras.org
• CCAM-ERAS is coordinated by Panteia BV (Netherlands) and funded by the European Commission under Horizon Europe. Partners include CINOP, Cambridge Econometrics, PAVE Europe, CORTE, MaaSLab, Rupprecht Consult, SINTEF, ITS Norway, WMG at the University of Warwick, and SAAM