The famous driverless bus of Trikala probably needs a driver or new settings. Several pedestrians got scared this morning to see that the town jewel lost its orientation, and stranded on the sidewalk in the middle of the town. The bus halted what it seems one meter away from a local kiosk.
source: trikalavoice.gr
The automatic driverless bus went in full operation in autumn 2014 in the town of Trikala in central Greece. It is the first pilot program of this kind across Greece.
The computer-controlled vehicle serves commuters along a 2.4-kilometer route in the center of Trikala, a town with 131,000 residents. With 6 vehicles available to serve commuters, the bus operates from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 4 to 8 p.m. from Tuesdays to Sundays.
The buses, which are built by French manufacturer Robosoft, are 5 meter long and 1.5 meters wide and can carry up to 10 people. Their speed will not exceed 20 km/h. The vehicles are equipped with an advanced GPS and a laser mapping system for localization and movement control. Laser and ultrasound technologies are used to detect obstacles in front of and around the bus.
The driverless bus, which is a pilot platform, is part of CityMobil2, a multi-stakeholder project co-funded by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Program for research and technological development (FP7).
It seems that today’s accident was the first in the short life of the driverless bus.
PS I don’t know but the story reminded me of the small hand-wound metal cars of my childhood that they’d go out of control once they …. I don’t know, when the mechanism was worn out or something. My favorite was a metal American police car not bigger than a handful with two smart looking guys inside 🙂
What is left form my childhood’s metal treasures is this ↑
Driverless vehicles are the stupidest idea that profit-hungry business has come up with since the early industrial revolution. At a time of high unemployment, putting people’s lives at risk with clumsy computer programs and unreliable technology is a scandal.