Future unmanned transport: buses, not cars




Unmanned buses in Oristano (Italy) i>

Now several car (and not only) companies have focused their efforts on the development of unmanned vehicles and the complicated task of laying the optimal route, pattern recognition, maneuvering, etc. The tasks are so complex that there are serious doubts that the commercial exploitation of these machines will begin in the near future, too many nuances.

But many people forget that there is much more simple and logical application of the system of automatic piloting. This public transport. There are some problems solved by definition, because public transportation moves chёtkomu route on the same strip. On public roads can be dedicated lane for buses and trolley buses, so maneuvering too simplified to the limit.

Not surprisingly, in several cities have bus routes run without drivers species.

For example, in the small town of Oristano in western Sardinia (Italy) in the past year has passed обкатка unmanned mini-buses route length of 1, 3 km. The technology is modeled on the one that implemented in Rotterdam company 2getthere.

The only difference is that in Rotterdam allocated a separate lane for unmanned buses, which shares a common urban environment on the area and looks unnatural. In Oristano want to put buses on the same lane on which cyclists and drive ordinary cars. There are no problems here, because buses are perfectly recognized the obstacles and are completely safe for the environment.

Obstacle detection buses 2getthere


Activists Italian project говорят, that the main problem - not the technical and legal nature. For example, trade unions have a strong resistance drivers.

Nevertheless, the tests showed the viability of the first idea. The authors believe that it is for the future of unmanned robotic transport buses. They say that the unmanned vehicles can be useful in the town trips on the highway, but they are unsuitable for use in urban environments.

In the city because of the many obstacles that stop and maneuver an unmanned vehicle will show even worse performance than the machine running man. Of course, if 100% of the cars immediately became unmanned, would synchronize their movement and act as a single system, but in the near future, this is not exactly expected. Park of cars does not change completely for 10 and even 20 years. Buses also quite possible to buy centrally, and they are updated more often.

Unmanned buses in Rotterdam








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Source: geektimes.ru/post/242218/