Autonomous Vehicles in Public Transport in Finland

Twenty-odd European cities are currently experimenting with autonomous vehicles in public transport. Other cities are carrying out studies that will most likely lead to concrete tests within the next five years./.roboticsbusinessreview.com

European cities outperform their global counterparts in urban mobility. This is the finding of a report by consultancy Deloitte, which calculates an urban mobility index. Helsinki, Amsterdam, and London lead the ranking of 18 urban centers worldwide when it comes to readiness for the Future of Mobility. Deloitte looked at a wide-ranging set of themes, including resilience, inclusion, and vision.

In 2015, Dutch automobile association ANWB published an overview: "Experiments on Autonomous and Automated Driving." While three years old, the report still provides a clear picture of ongoing developments.

The most recent example of a major city's administration experimenting with autonomous public transport is the Swedish capital, Stockholm. The project, managed by telecommunications company Ericsson, started in January 2018 with two autonomous shuttle buses driving up to 24 km (14.8 miles) across pedestrian areas, bike lanes, and roads.

At the core of the project lies Ericsson's Connected Urban Transport (CUT) platform. CUT is a virtual bus driver for the Stockholm shuttles. It communicates with sensor-heavy intelligent bus stops, traffic lights, and road infrastructure. CUT connects everything and everyone on and around the road.

The CUT platform forms an ecosystem where all networked stakeholders are allowed to exploit and monetize their data and to also enhance their end-user services. The solution is based on a managed cloud platform and includes built-in scalability and modularity, according to...