On the driverless buses: Public transport across the Firth of Forth goes autonomous

The National takes a ride to the future

Jim Hutchinson’s team of engineers have been working for 10 years to get a driverless bus across Scotland’s Firth of Forth, the estuary that links Edinburgh to the North Sea.

Yet Mr Hutchinson hopes their efforts go under the radar when the first paying customers come aboard on Monday, on a timetabled service between Edinburgh and Fife that he says is a world first.

“If people have quickly forgotten they’re on an autonomous bus, that’s perfect as far as I’m concerned,” he told The National at the south end of the Forth Road Bridge.

As you ride past a Unesco-listed Victorian railway bridge and over the firth that was first crossed by ferries in the days of the 11th-century St Margaret — you might know her husband King Malcolm from Shakespeare’s Macbeth ­— it would be possible not to realise what is special about the bus.

Autonomous or not, there is a driver’s cab and a steering wheel.

At first, a “safety driver” will be sitting there full-time to reassure people and take the controls if necessary.

These are not electric vehicles, at least not yet. They are not the first buses to cross the 2,517-metre Forth Road Bridge.

They are not instinctively more attractive than a conventional bus. Insiders admit the UK public will be “wary”, even though the route is mostly on motorways and the Forth Road Bridge is a dedicated public transport lane.

The bus operator, Stagecoach, insists it is not about cutting jobs. In fact, there are two staff on board during the pilot run.

So what exactly do the new buses bring to a city such as Edinburgh, one of many urban areas embracing the idea of “20-minute neighbourhoods” and a green vision of bikes, pedestrians and public transport?

You could read Edinburgh’s 209-page City Plan 2030 without finding a mention of driverless buses — but those involved in the Firth of Forth project say they have much to offer.

One thing they promise is safety.

It is “well known that most collisions are really the result of human error”, said Mr Hutchinson, chief executive of Fusion Processing, which made sensors and AI software for the buses.

Robots with 360-degree vision should not make catastrophic mistakes, and they should not waste fuel or wear down tyres with harsh braking and acceleration either.

This could save money and make it viable to keep struggling bus routes open, said Peter Stephens, a policy director for Stagecoach.

The UK's first driverless bus route

“What we hope is that if this trial is successful, the fact that they are more fuel-efficient will mean that actually we’ve got an environmental benefit that is supporting those local transport plans,” Mr Stephens said.

“Also there’s a better safety case, which I think will be a big contribution to those local transport plans.”

In other words: the software steering the bus travelling at up to 80kmp is “as good, if not better, than the best driver”, as Mr Hutchinson put it.

“It’s not meant to be a roller-coaster. It’s meant to be a nice, smooth ride,” he said.

If things go well on Scotland’s 23km pilot route, people involved with the project would like to export their goods to the Middle East and around the world.

A bus similar to Edinburgh’s fleet of five will soon be in the UAE, after UK engineers were shortlisted for the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport.

Various projects are in the pipeline in the UK such as smart goods vehicles and mobility shuttles for hospitals.

In France, Paris has run experiments with small on-demand shuttles and is testing a 6km stretch of bus route.

Small, self-driving minibuses have also taken to the streets of Geneva in Switzerland and the Norwegian capital Oslo, while Potsdam near Berlin has acquired autonomous trams.

But Scotland’s new AB1 route (sometimes pronounced “Abbey”) is regarded as the world's first regular timetabled route involving full-sized driverless buses.

Under a second phase of the project the route could be extended northwards into more challenging urban roads.

Scotland’s Transport Minister Kevin Stewart said the country could “establish its credentials on the world stage” thanks to the “pioneering and ambitious project” on the firth.

“I’m excited to see how this technology can help to support our vision for a sustainable, inclusive, safe and accessible transport system,” Mr Stewart said.

The second phase in Scotland could also see the “safety driver” leave their seat and become a conductor or “bus captain” who takes fares and handles passenger issues.

This brings another possible benefit because customers can board more quickly and pay their fare later, Mr Stephens said.

Dave Cronin, a bus driver of 45 years’ service put up by Stagecoach to talk about the project, said he believed the driverless technology would one day seem normal.

“You think back to the days when lifts first came out," Mr Cronin said. "They had attendants in the lifts all the time. People wouldn’t get in without an attendant.

“Now you just get in a lift.”