The conference on “Human Factors challenges of Vehicle Automation and Smart Mobility” organized by the HUMANIST European Association took place on October 26 and 27 in Rhodes Island. It was highly successful, bringing together about 300 participants, including researchers, stakeholders and experts working in the field of human factors in transport.

The keynote speech of the conference was given by the Director of HIT Dr. E. Bekiaris, who presented the "Smart cities and mobility in islands: the future of Europe".

The Director of the Institute's Research sector A - Human Factors and Vehicle Technology, and President of the Conference Scientific Committee, Dr. M. Panou chaired the session "Improving vehicle safety in an increasingly automated environment", while presentations were made by HIT research personnel members Dr. M. Gkemou, E. Gaitanidou, M. Loukea, S. Nikolaou, K. Touliou and E. Chalkia. 

Within the framework of the conference, a demo of the European Project Drive2theFuture took place, presenting the project results. Finally, the director of the Institute's South Aegean branch Ms. Mary Papandreou received a honorary award for the excellent organization of the conference in the island.