Bus manufacturer Iveco Bus, driverless technology provider EasyMile and partners have completed testing of a fully driverless standard 12 metre bus prototype, capable of operating under real conditions. According to Iveco the bus has proven feasible for autonomous operations in bus rapid transit (BRT) lanes as well as on private sites. Technologies integrated into the bus include safety controls, navigation software and deployment processes. EasyMile contributes the fleet management solutions which is fully dedicated to autonomous vehicles.
The bus is tested in different seasons and weather conditions. The autonomous driving system (ADS) embedded in the bus enables it to repeatedly dock at stations within a gap less than 10 cm. Vehicle to infrastructure (V2X) capabilities allow the bus to anticipate traffic light phases, meaning smooth stopping and starting as well as lower energy consumption. Manoeuvre and stopping precision also enable automatic parking in the depot. Maximum speeds reached by the bus in autonomous mode demonstrated that the technology also performs well at 40km/h as the partners are specifying. Further tests indicated that the software provider’s multimodal localization technology is also effective at autonomous speeds over 70km/h.
EasyMile and IVECO BUS, together with Sector, Transpolis, ISAE-SUPAERO, Université Gustave Eiffel, Inria, and Michelin joined forces to develop the technology to automate the bus in 2017 as part of the STAR, Rapid Autonomous Transport System, project. The project partners are now preparing their next step for the second half of the year - to operate the bus in a city under real conditions.