OPINION: Ukraine Tests Remote Driving Technology – Real Challenge Is Connectivity

Late in the evening in the backyard of the Adaptis office, the team spent hours testing an unusual configuration: a remote-controlled car was supposed to drive without a physical driver inside, while the control station was located far away.

It was already dark, and the testing dragged on until nearly 9:00 or 10:00 p.m. The team waited anxiously to see if they could establish a stable connection between the vehicle and the ground control station.

This was how one of Adaptis’ joint projects with Elmo came to life. Elmo is an Estonian deep-tech company that develops teledriving technology—allowing remote vehicle control without a driver inside.

Elmo treats this field as much more than a laboratory experiment: the company has developed a road-legal teledriving technology and is currently testing these solutions in Ukraine for civilian, logistics, and security scenarios.

Uklon’s recent announcement regarding the launch of Ukraine’s first pilot project for remote driving (teledriving) became a major milestone for the tech market. Estonian deep-tech company Elmo, whose system is certified in the EU, serves as the technological partner for the project.

This innovation opens up vital new opportunities for Ukraine, ranging from making military logistics safer and more secure to creating inclusive jobs for veterans who can now work as remote drivers.

In the context of the Russo-Ukrainian War, such solutions are highly practical. Remote-controlled vehicles can be incredibly useful in environments where a human presence in the cabin poses an unnecessary risk – such as during evacuations, equipment delivery, demining operations, or other hazardous missions.

Other Topics of Interest

US Senator Lindsey Graham Praises Ukrainian Drone Tech During Visit to SkyFall Plant

US Senator Lindsey Graham toured the facilities of Ukrainian defense-tech company SkyFall, viewing advanced drones like the “Baba Yaga” and urging the US to deepen technological cooperation with Kyiv.

For a remote-controlled vehicle, stable connectivity is the ultimate baseline: without it, low-latency video transmission, telemetry, and ground station control are simply impossible.

Adaptis helped Elmo fine-tune a critical component of the system: reliable satellite connectivity, without which the movement of a “driverless” vehicle would be impossible. Here, we will go behind the scenes of how innovations came to life.

Behind every large-scale release lie months of rigorous, behind-the-scenes trials.

In early 2024, Roman, a representative of Elmo Remote in Ukraine, reached out to Adaptis. The request came in through the company’s general inquiry line.

At the time, the Elmo team was preparing their first vehicle for operation under Ukrainian conditions and was looking for a solution that could reliably link the remote-controlled car with a ground control station.

Initially, they considered various options, including LTE and standard satellite communications. However, in areas with damaged or unstable infrastructure, standard solutions do not always deliver the required level of reliability. For remote driving, a loss of connection means risking the entire mission.

“At that time, they knew almost nothing about how Starlink could be applied to such scenarios. The task was purely practical: connect the car to the ground control station and ensure a stable connection with low latency between the vehicle and the station. Together, we began exploring what solutions could work under these conditions, and we gradually arrived at Starlink,” Tymchenko recalls, the Adaptis manager who coordinated the collaboration with Elmo Remote.

In a remote-controlled vehicle, connection is the most critical part of the entire management system. The vehicle must receive commands, transmit video and telemetry over long distances with minimal delay, maintain contact with the operator, and remain controllable even where conventional infrastructure is down or unstable.

For Elmo Remote, it was essential to verify whether Starlink could become a viable part of this communication setup. For Adaptis, the challenge was to adapt the Starlink terminal for a teledriving solution and deploy it in a mobile, on-the-move scenario.

The team had to resolve several practical engineering challenges:

• How to properly integrate and secure the terminal onto the vehicle;
• How to ensure stable power supply from the car’s onboard electrical system;
• How to establish a seamless connection between the moving vehicle and the control station;
• How to test the entire setup in conditions that mimic real-world use.

The first closed trials took place in Kyiv. The Elmo Remote vehicle arrived at the Adaptis office, while the control station was set up separately. The teams tested whether the car could move smoothly while receiving commands remotely.

“The Elmo Remote team and we stayed up until late into the night because it was vital for us to see everything up and running. When the car finally started driving around the backyard solely on remote commands, it became clear: we did it,” Tymchenko recalls.

Following the successful tests in Ukraine, the Elmo Remote team returned to Estonia. What followed was a longer phase of internal approvals, refinements, and production preparation. According to Adaptis, about a year passed between those first backyard tests and the official announcement of the production rollout.

For Adaptis, this project served as a prime example of how satellite communications can function as a core element of a more complex robotic system—operating in tandem with a vehicle, a control station, and a rugged field scenario.

This case demonstrates how, in environments critical to network stability, technologies rapidly transition from experimental concepts into essential tools capable of changing real-world operations across various territories.

“For us, this was a project where we joined forces with partners to find a solution that potentially saves lives. When a vehicle can execute a dangerous mission without a human inside, the value of the technology reaches a whole new level,” concludes Tymchenko.