5 cities where self-driving buses go

No one doubts that in a few years public transport will be automated and they will not need a driver to drive. And such a future is much closer than you could have imagined. We will talk about several cities, where today on the roads you can see buses that are not driven by people.

I want to warn readers that automated transport still does not look like the fantastic pictures of the future from movies and books . He appeared, and this is a great achievement. However, unmanned buses travel on fairly simple routes. And their speed is relatively low. In the long term - the spread of freight and public transport, managed automatically .

Lausanne, Switzerland

In June 2015, the EasyMile project was launched, the team of which implemented the launch of six EZ10 buses. This unmanned vehicle moves along a route of 2.5 kilometers. The bus runs on a schedule and transports students and teachers from the subway to various university buildings.

For half a year, while he was cruising, not a single traffic accident happened to him.

Trikala, Greece

Trikala is a small town located in northern Greece. Its population is 80 thousand people. However, it was Trikala that became the first test location for CityMobil2 - the French public transport system.

An automated bus with a capacity of 10 people drives through the streets of the city, where bicycles and pedestrians move, just like all other cars.

Zhengzhou, China

Yutong - the creators of the Chinese automated bus - conduct the final testing phase. After that, the route will be more than 30 kilometers and connect the two cities. At this stage, the driver still monitors the system, but soon the movement will be fully controlled by the mechanism.

Wageningen, the Netherlands

The EZ10 bus, mentioned above, has undergone several modifications and moves along the streets of Wageningen called WEpods.

The roads here are completely public, and it is for them that the unmanned gear runs. Previously, special infrastructure was used for transport, from which complex traffic intersections were excluded.

Milton Keynes, United Kingdom (2018)

In England, preparing to launch a large-scale project that can change the entire traffic situation.

In the meantime, it is being tested in the small town of Milton Keynes. Soon 40 unmanned vehicles with a capacity of two people will drive around here. The route of travel will include the entire city. But the system will become fully functional only after 3 years.

The question arises: when to expect the onset of the future, in which automated transportation is widely used, and is it time for drivers to fear that they will remain without work?