How Ironic—Self-Driving Bus Needs Two Staff to Operate It

The World’s First Self-Driving Bus? Automologist MAC begs to differ…

Self-driving bus with its driver…errr?

When I think of self-driving public transport systems, my mind conjures up images of futuristic and very much driverless and mostly steering-wheel-less rooms-on-wheels whisking me in the lap of luxury to my distant destination.

But, a new autonomous bus project just launched by Stagecoach in Edinburgh, UK, has seemingly missed the point and is proving that we really are not there yet when it comes to driverless public transport. This is because the new service requires not one but two hoomans to operate the buses.

Trawling around the interweb and reading the stories about this on the BBC or in the Guardian and Sky News who announced that we are entering into a brave new world of transportation with the Scottish bus line fearlessly going where others have feared to drive have failed to note that there is actually very little autonomous transportation going on.

Stagecoach will be operating a fleet of five double-decker buses on a 14-mile route through Edinburgh and intends to ferry 10,000 passengers per week on the pilot project, which they say is the first in the world—it is NOT, even if the British Government tells you it is. The buses are scheduled to be operated by a safety driver and a bus captain (what a great job title that is), who will help passengers to board and alight the bus. So, me thinks that “autonomous” is at least a bit of a misnomer.

Not to be deterred, Kevin Stewart, Scotland’s Transport Minister, told the press that he was “very much looking forward to seeing project CAVForth taking to the roads”. Carlton Stockton-Jones, the MD for Stagecoach, added, “We are excited to introduce the UK’s first autonomous bus fleet in east Scotland”. Me thinks someone should give him a dictionary for Christmas.

Stagecoach is most certainly NOT introducing the first driverless bus fleet to hit the streets. To me, though, it is more than a little ironic that this so-called self-driving bus service still needs two hoomans to staff it. But knowing how many accidents there have been with self-driving vehicles, it probably is for the better.