Stockholm Sweden has two operating autonomous shuttle buses

Two self-driving buses started to share the road with pedestrians, cyclists and other vehicles in a suburb of Stockholm. The shuttle buses travel at speeds of up to 24 km per hour.

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Stockholm buses may serve as a model

Many see the buses as a model for the development of multimodal urban transport in smart cities in the near future.

Ericsson's Connected Urban Transport

Ericsson's Connected Urban Transport platform serves as the virtual bus driver for the two buses in Stockholm. They communicate with smart, sensor-enabled bus stops, traffic lights and the infrastructure of the road.

The Connected Urban Transport makes it easier for the buses to keep pace with technological advancement and provide an example of the smart city success. It has provided a foundation for intelligent traffic in cities for regional cooperatives and even across an entire nation as in the Netherlands.

The Ericsson system is described on its website.

Dallas Texas will be using the system among many other places.

The system claims to minimize costs and staffing problems avoid traffic jams, provide traffic data, and also provide self-driving buses. The Ericsson IoT Accelerator of the Connected Urban Transport allows almost instantaneous onboarding of thousands of connected traffic lights, warning signals and bus stops.

The data collected by these connected resources can be shared across transport agencies both within a city and even across multiple municipalities.

Connected Urban Transport also has an open API and this allows the public sector to collaborate securely with developers, service providers, automotive manufacturers, and transport operators in order to build smarter, more attractive cities.

Project by operator Nobina is called Auto Pilot

The buses are one hundred percent electric. They can carry up to 11 passengers plus a conductor. They are free. The buses are to operate for six months. Nobina hopes that by observing how patrons react they can develop autonomous vehicles for the future.

Peter Hafmar of Nobina Technology said: "This is to transport public, not one person in one car. To make the environment better we need to travel together, and this will help us travel together in a better way, from door to door, from your bus stop, to your office or from the bus stop to your home. So, that will create a better situation for everyone."

Several companies are involved in the project including Ericcson, rail operator SJ, and the real estate firm Klovern.

Comments on the ride

Michael Darnart a 25-year-old IT worker said: "I was expecting it to be a little bit bumpy, like it should be jumpy start, but it was really smooth and I'm quite impressed. It's a really good proof of concept that it will work someday in the future at least."

Mattias Lind a 19-year-old engineering student said: "Computers tend to do less errors than humans. So if we could get more robots out in traffic and less humans out in traffic I think that the amount of fatal accidents and accidents overall in traffic will reduce."

Previously published in Digital Journal