The UK’s first full-size autonomous buses started carrying passengers on 15 May. Jonathan Welch reports on the launch
Following on from a depot based trial with Stagecoach and the more recent launch of the autonomous minibus service in Oxfordshire’s Milton Park business park operated by First, the next major step in the development of autonomous bus technology has seen the official launch of full-size autonomous buses as part of an ongoing project in Scotland. Having been in development for some time already, the five Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV buses used on the CAVForth project entered passenger service on Monday 15 May on a route linking the Ferrytoll park & ride site in Fife, just north of the Forth Road Bridge, with the Edinburgh Park business and retail development and railway station.
Scottish Transport Minister Kevin Stewart officially launched the CAVForth autonomous service, which travels across the Forth Road Bridge, on Thursday 11 May, marking the next phase in what is arguably one of the most ambitious and complex autonomous bus trials worldwide. The project is led by Fusion Processing in cooperation with project partners Stagecoach, Transport Scotland, Alexander Dennis, Edinburgh Napier University and Bristol Robotics Laboratory, and is being co-funded by the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV).
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