Autonomous buses are likely to be better for passengers and the environment, but not everyone is excited

Driverless buses arrive in Australia: smart and green but what now for drivers?

Clunking, dreary and seemingly always late – the humble bus struggles to catch hold of the imagination in the way of the charming trundle of trams or the power and rhythm of the train, butthe latest smart technologies promise to rejuvenate this long-maligned form of transport.

Gone will be the days of waiting an eternity at stops only for three buses to arrive at once, languishing in traffic as more agile cars cut out in front, and blaming overly-relaxed bus drivers for a late arrival to work.

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For the Intellibus in Western Australia, there isn’t a bus driver to blame. At the start of December, the RAC completed a three-month trial of the self-driving vehicle in south Perth. West Australian passengers put their lives in the hands of a fully autonomous bus that drives itself using Lidar (light detection and ranging) ultraviolet light to detect and avoid objects, measure distance and build a map of the environment, aided by external cameras to detect traffic lights.

For the trial, the Intellibus travelled at an average speed of 25kph – perhaps a sensible precaution given that self-driving vehicles have been involved in a number of high-profile accidents in trials conducted by Google and Uber in recent months.

Dr Peter Harrop, chairman of research company IDTechEx, says buses promise to be the means by which self-driving vehicles filter into everyday life.

“The driverless autonomous bus will be popular, with no user pushback because we readily [and] happily climb into driverless trains at airports already – even driverless pods at Heathrow Airport [in] London where that technology is now being upgraded to create free-running autonomous buses,” he says.

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He believes buses will not just run off green energy but actually power themselves via energy harvesting shock absorbers and solar roofs, pointing to the already available energy-independent eight seater developed by Nanowinn Technologies in China.

Harrop also notes Toyota is working on 3D printed seats featuring sensors, heaters and coolers and covered in smart fabric.

IDTechEx Research calculates that 2.3 million electric buses will be made in 2027, about six times the current number.

In Australia the leaders in cutting-edge bus technology have long been stationed in Melbourne, where Public Transport Victoria has been busily trialling innovations with their SmartBus lines for over a decade.

Running along three orbital city and four Doncaster Area Rapid Transit lines, innovations to these buses began with low-tech improvements such as dedicated lanes and stations equipped with the physically and visually-impaired in mind. They progressed to smart technology solutions such as the ability to request traffic-light priority and to stream real-time information back to the depot and forward to prospective passengers waiting at the next stop.

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TransDev, the private company that has taken the wheel from PTV for these routes, is planning to accelerate development even faster.

The TransDev managing director Harry Wijers has worked with electric buses, autonomous vehicles and on-demand transport in the Netherlands, and is keen to help to introduce such concepts here in Australia.

Central to his immediate plans are upgrading the Doncaster Area Rapid Transit lines to something called Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), which involves some incremental but potentially impactful upgrades.

“BRT combines the recognised features of rail with the flexibility and cost advantages of road transport,” he says.

These lines will have dedicated right-of-way allowing for more predictable bus arrival times and faster travel, stations that feature dedicated parking and shops, and an insistence on clean fuel technology.

Wijers expects plenty of community resistance in the infrastructure he wants for the line, which he puts down to a public preference for a proposed Doncaster rail link.

“Another obstacle is the perception that BRT would compete with private vehicles for the available road space,” he says.

“While it’s easy to jump to this conclusion, people should understand that a fully articulated bus has the capacity to take at least 100 cars off the road.”

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He also highlights Transdev’s on-demand bus services in the Netherlands, targeted at elderly and disabled people, as another good idea.

“An on-demand transport system that supplements the public transport network creates a door-to-door journey for everyone, but especially for vulnerable customers,” he says.

“On-demand transport systems also perfectly balance demand with available resources. It has the potential to provide a perfect service alternative in areas where the demand isn’t high enough to justify the allocation of standard-route bus services.”

The future of the bus promises to be greener, faster and more efficient, but the biggest impact of all will be felt not by passengers but drivers.

According to the 2015 PwC report A Smart Move, 94,946 bus, automobile and rail drivers in Australia have an 80% likelihood of seeing their jobs disappear in the next 20 years thanks to driverless vehicle technology.

So as they step off the bus after their comfortable, fast, punctual journey, passengers might well wish to express their gratitude for such excellent service – the trouble is there won’t be anyone left to thank.