Written by Satu
12 May 2016
It was two weeks ago when my friend posted the news in our Whatsapp group. “Wow driverless buss, really?” then I quickly check my schedule to see if I can go to their show time. The trial of the driverless bus is part of a program called Kista Mobility Week 2016. It is a technology week held in Kista, Stockholm by Ericsson, Nobina and Kista Science City AB. Not to forget the collaboration with CityMobil2.
moreThe next day, in the afternoon, I arrived in Kista alone with my GoPro ready to shoot the bus. Wait, it is actually too small to be bus, at least for me. It is more to a car. But anyway, let’s go on with their call name. The shape indeed more to a bus than a car. It is box shaped and the color is dominated by white.
The bus move slowly, about 5-10 km per hour. The track was not that far either, it is about 700 meters or so. But at least they have one turn. It is good to see the bus take smooth turn to the left and right.
The bus can take up to 8 persons and the girl in charge of operating (allowing people in and out, not driving) said the vehicle can drive as fast as 15 km per hour. The vehicle model is EZ10 and it uses Ericsson’s 5G technology to deliver a live camera feed and positional data to a remote control center.
During my 30 minutes visit to this show, I saw lot of people with excited face while waiting for the bus and also after they got out. I felt the same.
Are we going to see it running on the road soon?
According to the bus operator, it will not happen any time soon. There still few things to consider regarding the communication, safety and so on. Speaking about safety, one passenger ask the operator about safety. “If this run on the road and accident happened, who will take responsibility?” I was like “Right, will it be the one in control center? Or the owner?” the operator said right now they are still discussing about that.
My friends that have tried this driverless bus told me the bus have procedure to slow down and even to stop, when there are people in front or on the side of the car. I did not know this when I try it. If I do, I probably play around with it 🙂
