Skip to main content

Finnish university launches self-driving buses in Helsinki

Helsinki’s Metropolia University of Applied Sciences has begun a trial of self-driving buses on the streets of Helsinki as part of the SOHJOA-project coordinated by the university, which aims to provide opportunities for Finnish companies to develop new traffic automation products and services ideas. The two French-made EasyMile EZ10 buses have no steering wheel or pedals and run on virtual tracks that can be configured to accommodate sudden changes in demand. They can carry ten passengers and have a dri
August 18, 2016 Read time: 1 min
Helsinki’s Metropolia University of Applied Sciences has begun a trial of self-driving buses on the streets of Helsinki as part of the SOHJOA-project coordinated by the university, which aims to provide opportunities for Finnish companies to develop new traffic automation products and services ideas.

The two French-made 8246 EasyMile EZ10 buses have no steering wheel or pedals and run on virtual tracks that can be configured to accommodate sudden changes in demand. They can carry ten passengers and have a driver on board in case of emergency.

The buses will be trialled in Espoo in September and in Tampere in October until the first snow falls. The trials will continue in the spring of 2017.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Deadlines approach for Europe’s automatic crash alert system
    September 15, 2016
    The EU-co-funded I_ HeERO (Infrastructure_ Harmonised eCall European Pilot) project is working to ensure the readiness of national networks of call centres - known as public safety answering posts (PSAPs) - to deal with automated crash alerts arriving via the continent-wide 112 emergency phone number. Following on from its HeERO and HeERO2 pre-deployment predecessors, which enjoyed €16m (US$17.76m) in EU funding, the new initiative runs from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2017. It has €30.9 million (US$34.
  • Volvo participates in self-driving car project
    December 3, 2013
    Volvo Cars will play a leading role in the world's first large-scale autonomous driving pilot project in which 100 self-driving Volvo cars will use approximately 50 kilometres of selected public roads in everyday driving conditions around the Swedish city of Gothenburg. These roads are typical commuter arteries and include motorway conditions and frequent queues. The project also includes fully automated parking, without a driver in the car. The ground-breaking project 'Drive Me - Self-driving cars f
  • Driver aids make inroads on improving safety
    November 12, 2015
    In-vehicle anti-collision systems continue to evolve and could eliminate some incidents altogether. John Kendall rounds up the current developments. A few weeks ago, I watched a driver reverse a car from a parking bay at right angles to the road, straight into a car driving along the road. The accident happened at walking pace, no-one was hurt and both cars had body panels that regain their shape after a low speed shunt.
  • Yeti more AV snow-clearing by Semcon
    April 29, 2019
    There is a lot of debate about the place of autonomous vehicles on our roads – but a Swedish company is already ploughing ahead with driverless snow clearance on airport runways, writes David Arminas Femcon, a Swedish applied automation company, has started an on-site project to clear snow from runway landing lights using autonomous vehicles (AVs). Most often, this time-consuming job has to be done manually because of the intricate manoeuvres needed to avoid damaging the lighting systems. The trial pro