Sweden will become the first European country to use self-driving buses on public roads – one year earlier than the UK launches an autonomous service in Scotland.
The largest public transport operators in the Nordic countries Scania and Nobina have revealed that two self-driving buses will be tested along a five-kilometre route in Sweden’s south-eastern capital Stockholm in 2020.
The Scania Citywide LF electric buses will reportedly run autonomously between the residential zone of Barkarby, about 20 kilometres from central Stockholm, to a nearby underground station.
Spokeswoman Karin Radstrom told local media: “The technology is now sufficiently mature to initiate trials in actual bus operations on public roads, making the project one of the first of its kind in Europe with buses this size.”
Initially, the e-buses will travel around one kilometre without passengers with a driver on board to make sure everything runs fine.
In the second phase, it is expected that around 300 passengers will use the service along the entire five-kilometre route every day and the self-driving buses will make four stops.
Scania and Nobina will manage the traffic and control systems for the self-driving buses.
The Citywide LF electric bus is 12 metres long and carries up to 80 passengers.
In November 2018, the UK government announced plans for a self-driving bus service on the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland by 2021, carrying half a million passengers every year.
The Department for Business is co-funding a six million GBP project that will see five single-decker buses used on the 14-mile route, each carrying 42 passengers.
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Story By: Lee Bullen, Sub-Editor: Joseph Golder,  Agency: Central European News
