Driverless buses set to take to the road within months
● Depot trials followed by a full passenger service in 2020 between Fife and Edinburgh
Scots commuters will be the first in the UK to travel on driverless buses when a pilot is introduced to run vehicles over the Forth Road Bridge between Edinburgh and Fife.
Bus giant Stagecoach will operate the new trial service, expected in 2020, which will see five single-deck buses carrying 42 passengers travelling 14 miles from Ferrytoll Park and Ride in Fife to the Edinburgh Park tram exchange, near the Gyle.
With buses every 20 minutes, this could provide an estimated 10,000 weekly journeys.
The buses will be used autonomously to “level four” standard, meaning a driver must remain on board during any journey in line with UK regulations.
The initiative is part of a Uk-wide trial of driverless vehicles, which will see two other pilots of “autonomous” taxi services taking place in London. The Scottish scheme received £4.35 million of a £25m UK grant to help make driverless technology on UK streets a reality.
Scottish Government transport secretary Michael Matheson said: “This is a very exciting development and underlines the potential Scotland has when it comes to connected
and autonomous vehicles. The Forth has been at the centre of engineering innovation over three centuries and it is fitting that it will be central to this next innovation in transport and our Programme for Government commitments to intelligent mobility.
“The deployment of these vehicles in Scotland will bring transformative change to the way we travel and work, as well as having a positive impact on the economy, the environment and safety.”
Work on the vehicles is being carried out at busmaker Alexander Dennis’s site in Guildford, with the buses expected to be ready for use at the start of 2019.
In the short term, the buses will be used in driverless mode within the depot to carry out movements such as parking and moving into the fuelling station and bus wash.
The system uses several sensors, including radar, laser, camera and ultrasound along with satellite navigation, to detect and avoid objects and plan routes.
Improved safety, reduced congestion, increased efficiency and lower staffing costs have been billed among potential benefits of driverless buses.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell said: “I’m delighted that Edinburgh has been chosen as a base for this exciting project.
“The city is a hotbed for innovation and this £4.35m grant is welcome further support for Scotland’s research and technology sectors. The UK government’s Modern Industrial Strategy [published last year]
is investing in the UK’S future through innovation. Autonomous vehicles are just one example of that commitment in driving the UK forward.”
Stagecoach, Alexander Dennis and technology firm Fusion Processing announced earlier this year that work was underway to trial the first fullsized autonomous vehicle.
The bus will use both onroad and hard shoulder running, and will operate on the “old” Forth Road Bridge, which is now a dedicated public transport corridor allowmr
ing buses and taxis to use lanes between the M9 near Newbridge and Halbeath in Fife.
In London, Project Apollo, led by Addison Lee, who are working with a number of software companies, will receive £8.84m towards the development of autonomous taxis, building on its existing tests in Greenwich.
A second pilot in the UK capital, Servcity – headed up by Jaguar Land Rover – takes £11.15m of the funding as it develops a mobility service using six autonomous Land
Rover Discovery vehicles. UK government Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “Autonomous vehicles and their technology will not only revolutionise how we travel, it will open up and improve transport services for those who struggle to access both private and public transport.
“The UK is building on its automotive heritage and strengths to develop the new vehicles and technologies and from 2021 the public will get to experience the future for themselves.”
Clark was taken on a test vehicle run by autonomous vehicle software company Oxbotica – the first person outside its technical team to try the autonomous mode anywhere on the streets of the United Kingdom.
All the projects will include social behavioural research to understand how driverless technology can be integrated into society and applied to the development for future autonomous service models.
“The Forth has been at the centre of engineering innovation over three centuries and it is fitting that it will be central to this next innovation ...” MICHAEL MATHESON Scottish transport secretary
Would you trust a driverless bus? Would you let your children go to school in a driverless bus?
These are just some of the questions Scots commuters will have to consider after a pilot was announced to run self-driving buses across the Forth Road bridge between Edinburgh and Fife.
The development, a UK first, will see five single-decker buses carrying 42 passengers travelling 14 miles from Ferrytoll park-andride in Fife to Edinburgh park tram exchange, near the Gyle.
Currently, it looks as though the public is nervous. Less than one third of respondents would be happy to be picked up by a driverless car, according to Fujitsu’s Tech in a Transforming Britain report. When it comes to trusting driverless tech with the safety of a person’s child, that number falls to 17 per cent.
These statistics are probably not a surprise and the Fife pilot will have a driver as back-up. What is certain is that autonomous vehicles are the future with cost, efficiency and productivity benefits all possible.
Trials are already taking place in other countries and it is a huge positive that Scotland is now part of that. Indeed, the Forth Road Bridge’s role as a public transport corridor makes it ideal as the current volume of traffic is low, to put it kindly.
The hurdles are massive, however. Driving in a straight line on a Californian highway might be one thing. But transplant that to the rain and wind of a Scottish winter and you have a whole set of new problems.
And how do you teach a bus to be extra-cautious when it passes a group of schoolchildren playing with a ball? Or when the sound of an ice cream van is heard? Or when to break the rules of the road to allow a passing emergency vehicle to get by? Human drivers do these things instinctively. There are also concerns about personal safety on buses if no driver was present.
Self-driving buses are an obvious place to begin as they follow fixed routes, which are easier to handle than the changeable and complicated routes a taxi or car usually travels.
Commuters in Scotland have been told that the future is coming faster than anyone anticipated. The pilot is expected soon, but don’t hold your breath yet for when driverless buses – without a driver back-up – are let loose on Scotland’s main arteries. The public has to be convinced.