ORno service autonomous, or self-driving buseswill start work next week Edinburghthe first of its kind in Great Britain, although the vehicle will continue to have personnel capable of taking control in an emergency.

“Bus-mounted autonomous technology has already been tested in other vehicles, but this is the first time it has been used on a bus journey,” Peter Stevens, head of company Stagecoach, told AFP during a demonstration near Edinburgh on Thursday. .

The new 22-kilometre route, west of the Scottish capital, is expected to carry around 10,000 passengers a week.

your five buses, which can circulate at speeds of up to 50 kilometers per hour, will continue to experience a driver on the ship to verify that the technology is working properly. British law does not yet permit the circulation of fully autonomous vehicles on public roads.

Another agent will review the ticket and answer user questions.

The on-board artificial intelligence system will detect other vehicles on the road and cameras and radar will scan the road to avoid pedestrians.

According to Stevens, the service will be safer and more efficient, with fuel savings of up to 20 percent.

“The system can respond faster than human reaction time,” he explained.

And the longer buses are in operation, the more data they will collect to further “increase autonomous travel times,” he added.

The service is “something new and exciting to see, part of our technological revolution,” bus driver Callum Jones told AFP.

In 2021, a driverless electric bus, a project considered pioneering in Europe.

Tests were also carried out in South Korea in the same year and in Singapore in early 2023.

HCM