By Mark Kane, Inside EVs
Making buses self-driving at depots sounds like a great first application.
Volvo Buses demonstrated autonomous driving of an electric bus at a bus depot, which happens to be the first such demo at at real depot, used by bus operator Keolis, outside of Gothenburg, Sweden.
The Swedish manufacturer notes that it will take years to make buses self-driving on public roads but depots are a fairly simple application for autonomous driving as the environment is known, with predictable and repetitive traffic flows.
Having an option of autonomous driving, bus operators would be able to order buses to park, drive to the wash or charging station, all by itself.
It's expected that bus operators will be able to purchase such systems within 5-10 years.
"During the demonstration, the fully-electric 12 m autonomous bus successfully drove itself between the parking bay and several workstations including cleaning, servicing and electric charging, before parking itself in the correct bay – all while carrying passengers."
Håkan Agnevall, President of Volvo Buses said:
“This marks a very important step in our autonomous journey as we now have successfully shown the commercial benefits an autonomous solution can deliver in a bus depot. Autonomous buses in depots bring new benefits such as more efficient traffic flows, higher productivity, less damages and improved safety. The industry-common charging interface OppChargeTM is ideally suited for autonomous charging, eliminating the need to connect power cables to the bus in the depot."
"During the demonstration, the fully-electric 12 m autonomous bus successfully drove itself between the parking bay and several workstations including cleaning, servicing and electric charging, before parking itself in the correct bay – all while carrying passengers."
Håkan Agnevall, President of Volvo Buses said:
“This marks a very important step in our autonomous journey as we now have successfully shown the commercial benefits an autonomous solution can deliver in a bus depot. Autonomous buses in depots bring new benefits such as more efficient traffic flows, higher productivity, less damages and improved safety. The industry-common charging interface OppChargeTM is ideally suited for autonomous charging, eliminating the need to connect power cables to the bus in the depot."
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