A self-driving bus in Scotland is ready for passengers
- Published
This is one the autonomous buses!
The UK's first full-sized self-driving bus is taking to the road in Scotland.
The bus will have its test drive in Edinburgh on April 25 2022.
If it goes well passengers could be on board by the summer!
Sam Greet, regional director of Scotland Stagecoach said: "This is a major step forward in our journey to fully launch the UK's first full-sized autonomous bus service and will provide easy access to a brand-new bus route in the heart of Scotland."
How will it work?
There are five single-deck buses and they've been named CAVforth and is joint project between the bus company, tech experts and the Scottish government.
Each bus will run from Forth Road Bridge between Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife and the Edinburgh Park train and tram interchange.
Once up and running to the public, the buses will be able to transport up to 36 passengers each journey and up to 10,000 passengers a week.
Levels 0-2 mean that a driver will be constantly supervising and driving the bus.
Levels 3-5 allow the bus to drive itself.
Complete self driving without the attention of the bus driver is only permitted in certain circumstances and in limited areas.
Outside of those areas and circumstances the driver must always be present.
The buses are full of sensors that tell the bus to drive on pre-selected roads and routes.
Chris Gall, group engineering director of Alexander Dennis, said the start of on-route testing was a "milestone" for the project.
"As we move towards passenger services later in the year, the project will be a landmark demonstration of future technologies in transport."
Are driverless buses safe?
The buses are full of sensors that tell them where a car or person is, when to stop and start and when to drive, each bus will also have an experienced bus driver on board to keep an eye on things!
The on-road testing comes after successful depot based trails, track testing and virtual simulations that Stagecoach have said put the buses to the test and finely tuned the driving systems to make sure they are safe.
Although the bus will 'drive itself' there will be a human monitoring it, who is there to make sure the bus is doing what it's supposed to do by checking the systems.
There will also be a 'bus captain' on each bus whose job will be to talk to passengers about the service and move around the bus.
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