Slovakia has been a leading player in the automotive industry since its inception, but unfortunately still only in the form of increasing assembly plants of foreign producers. R&D centers are growing very slowly and they are still rather an exception. This year, however, the Slovak University of Technology, in cooperation with industrial partners, presented a prototype of the autonomous vehicle, which is far from competing with Tesla or other major players, but that is not its goal. With this project, STU has shown that when experts and researchers from three faculties come together and receive at least a little support from the industry, they can move from an idea to a functional prototype. All researchers from the avSTUBA project are also teachers who perceive their work as a calling. Slovakia thus has the opportunity to become a leader in the wider region in the field of education of future experts in the field of smart transportation.

The project is primarily a project of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of STU, in which the Faculty of Informatics and Information Technologies of STU and the Faculty of Civil Engineering of STU actively participate. The industrial partners are Siemens, Xenomatix, Kyburz Switzerland and SlovakiaRing.