Skip to main content

Electric buses serve as mobile testing platforms by Living Lab project

The Living Lab Bus joint project, coordinated VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and launched at the beginning of 2016, is using Finnish electric buses acquired by Helsinki Region Transport as tangible development and testing platforms for businesses to validate their solutions in a real use environment. The buses can be used for testing user-oriented smart services and technologies, ranging from user interfaces and passenger services to sensors and transport operators’ solutions. VTT says the goa
March 3, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
The Living Lab Bus joint project, coordinated 814 VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and launched at the beginning of 2016, is using Finnish electric buses acquired by 6995 Helsinki Region Transport as tangible development and testing platforms for businesses to validate their solutions in a real use environment. The buses can be used for testing user-oriented smart services and technologies, ranging from user interfaces and passenger services to sensors and transport operators’ solutions.

VTT says the goal is to create a new type of everyday development environment for accelerating the product development of businesses by means of agile experiments, in close cooperation with end-users and research institutions. Potential new solutions include easy-to-use passenger feedback solutions, automated passenger counting, and automated road condition observations.

In addition to the Helsinki region, the City of Tampere is also participating in the project, exploiting the results in its own public transport development.

The project supports the creation of new services for transport service users and providers; the business operations of companies are promoted by accelerating the cost-effective introduction of new solutions. The Living Lab Bus showcases Finnish expertise, while also increasing the attractiveness of public transport and cooperation between various players, as well as producing new research information on the needs of public transport users and service developers.

Identifying utilisation interests and needs of various players associated with implementing and using the development platform and setting some common rules for the operations are scheduled for spring 2016. After that, the project will be expanded by bringing in new players, who will utilise the platform in their development activities.

Related Content

  • March 2, 2016
    European Truck Platooning Challenge winds up at Intertraffic
    As holder of the EU Presidency in 2016, the Netherlands has organised the 2016 European Truck Platooning Challenge and it is no coincidence that it will involve Intertraffic Amsterdam. Truck platooning, where two or more trucks travel in convoy very close to each other, provides many benefits. The first truck does the driving while the ones following are connected by a wireless electronic communications system, like the carriages of a train.
  • July 16, 2012
    Adopting universal technology platforms for tolling
    Dave Marples of Technolution argues that the continuing development of tolling-specific onboard equipment is leading us up a blind alley. We should, he says, be looking to realise universal platforms with universal application. The near-future automobile contains information systems of a sophistication to rival a jet airliner of only a few years ago, yet is 'piloted' by a considerably less well-trained individual of highly variable mental and physical capacity, and operated in a hostile, unpredictable and p
  • December 10, 2015
    Phoenix rises to the Smart City challenge
    Andrew Bardin Williams looks at the City of Phoenix where voters backed a $30bn plan to revamp its transportation network to cultivate a more connected community. According to a Land Use Institute study, half of all Americans and even more millennials (63%) would like to live in a place where they do not need to use a car very often. The City of Phoenix is putting in place plans to revamp its urban development and transportation policies to meet these changing quality of life perceptions.
  • August 8, 2017
    Considering accessibility costs little and pays dividends for all travellers
    Catering for those with disabilities can be cost-effective and improve services for all travellers, as David Crawford discovers. Clearer understanding of the economic value of accessible transport is essential if we are to speed up the current slow deployment levels, according to the Paris-based International Transport Forum (ITF), which staged a 2016 round table on the ‘Benefits and Costs of Inclusion in Transport’. It wants to see greater availability of data on levels of actual and unmet demand for acces