UK's first autonomous bus drives off in Edinburgh
The UK's first driverless bus has been launched in Edinburgh, with passenger service beginning on Monday 15th May.
Scotland's transport minister, Kevin Stewart, was joined at the launch at the Traffic Scotland National Control Centre by Ray O’Toole, executive chairman for Stagecoach, as well as representatives from each of the CAVForth partners.
The AB1 service is believed to be the first registered bus service in the world to use full sized autonomous buses.
The trial will run until 2025 and aims to demonstrate autonomous technology in a real-world environment transporting up to 10,000 passengers per week. A fleet of five Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV vehicles will cover the new 14-mile route, across the Forth Road Bridge from Ferrytoll Park & Ride, in Fife to Edinburgh Park Transport Interchange.
Though driverless, there will be two members of staff on board - a Safety Driver in the driver’s seat to monitor the technology, and a ‘Captain’ in the saloon to take tickets and answer customers’ questions.
Image: Stuart Halliday, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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