Skip to main content

Two thousand people take part in Australia’s driverless bus trial

More than 2,000 people have now taken part in Australia’s first driverless bus trial, the RAC Intellibus, since its launch by automobile club on public roads in South Perth, Western Australia. RAC general manager for public policy, Anne Still, said the trial was one of the most progressive in the world and had generated a lot of public interest, with more than 6,000 people registered to take part in the trial. So far, the RAC Intellibus has completed 357 trips and travelled 1,050 kilometres. The fu
March 23, 2017 Read time: 1 min
More than 2,000 people have now taken part in Australia’s first driverless bus trial, the RAC Intellibus, since its launch by automobile club on public roads in South Perth, Western Australia.

RAC general manager for public policy, Anne Still, said the trial was one of the most progressive in the world and had generated a lot of public interest, with more than 6,000 people registered to take part in the trial.

So far, the RAC Intellibus has completed 357 trips and travelled 1,050 kilometres.

The fully electric and driverless bus has no steering wheel, driver’s seat, brake pads, pedals or accelerator. It uses light detection and ranging (LiDAR), stereovision cameras, GPS, odometry and autonomous emergency braking to detect and avoid obstacles and keep its precise geographic location.

Related Content

  • AV drivers need help for safe handovers, says RAC
    July 19, 2019
    Drivers will need help preparing for unexpected situations where their autonomous vehicle (AV) hands back control, warns the RAC Foundation. RAC carried out a study in the UK with the Human Factors Research Group at the University of Nottingham on 49 people of varying ages using a driving simulator on a ‘commute-style’ journey for five days in a row. During the trial, the drivers demonstrated significant lateral movement (lane swerving) when control was handed back to them, even after being provided
  • Hikvision technology is making bus trips safer and smarter
    August 26, 2021
    The combination of robust, specially designed devices and smart functionalities from Hikvision gives bus and coach operators the edge in their drive to make public transport safer and more efficient
  • Cooperative road infrastructures - progress and the future
    February 1, 2012
    Robert Bertini, deputy administrator of the USDOT's Research and Innovative Technology Administration, discusses the research and deployment paths of cooperative road infrastructures. High-level analysis by the US's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) of the potential of Vehicle-to-Infrastructure/Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (V2I/I2V) and Vehicle-to-Vehicle (V2V) technologies indicates that V2V could in exclusivity address a large proportion of crashes involving unimpaired drivers. In fact,
  • Electric buses take new forms
    June 30, 2016
    Data from IDTechEx claims there are many new forms of electric bus arriving in quite a rush. Last year saw pure electric double decker and articulated buses. This year there is speculation that the work by Siemens of Germany on long distance pure electric trucks being charged by short lengths of overhead catenary could also apply to buses. That should involve much lower cost than the other zero pollution option the fuel cell bus. Now Switzerland has joined other places around the world newly exploring t