The UK’s first self-driving electric bus hits the road

The UK’s first self-driving electric bus was unveiled as part of a project exploring the ‘art of the possible’.

First Group said it will analyze how passengers, drivers, other road users and pedestrians respond to autonomous buses at an Oxfordshire business and technology park.

The project involves two fully electric, fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.

A minibus transporting people through Milton Park, near Didcot, was demonstrated on Monday and will go into service in early February.

A full single-decker bus will be added later this year for travel between the park and Didcot Parkway station, which has frequent rail services to and from London and Oxford.

First bus policy chief John Birtwistle said it was “only a matter of time” before electric buses are deployed in the UK, but “on the autonomous side it’s more about exploring the art of the possible”.

He told the PA news agency: “The technology is spreading to different modes of transport, including potential use on buses and coaches.

“We need to look at how it works, how well it’s accepted by the public, how it works for operations, how drivers respond to it and how people who don’t use the services respond to it.”

Mr Birtwistle said “rigorous” testing has taken place to ensure the vehicles are “absolutely” safe.

The buses are “capable of handling all the different day-to-day experiences,” he explained.

“They can handle traffic lights. You can handle roundabouts. They can handle parked vehicles.

“They master all turning maneuvers as well as basic braking and acceleration.

“You can wait for traffic holes (before they leave).”

While the vehicles are equipped with autonomous technology, including cameras and sensors, a trained driver sits behind the wheel to assist passengers and take control if necessary.

The experience of drivers and passengers will be an important part of the assessment of the project.

Mr Birtwistle said: “We want to try and understand if this (technology) is something that makes work (for the driver) easier – or actually makes it more difficult because they’re focusing on other things, there’s a different focus of their attention ?

“We don’t know how individual types of passengers might react to this.

“It could be something that young people are more accepting of, while older passengers may be less enthusiastic about traveling in such a vehicle.

“There’s a pretty extensive research program underway to address all of these issues and give us some insights and insights for possible future implementations.”

The service is being developed in conjunction with partners including Oxfordshire County Council, transport information company Zipabout, Milton Park, automated vehicle systems provider Fusion Processing and the University of West England.

It is financially supported by the government agency Innovate UK.

Last week, another bus company, Stagecoach, transported passengers in a fully self-driving bus for the first time in the UK.

As part of tests, 22 volunteers were taken across the Forth Road Bridge near Edinburgh in the diesel-powered monoplane.

Public service begins in the spring.