Here’s What City Will See Autonomous Buses This Year

• Fleet of autonomous buses with systems by Fusion Processing Ltd will go into service outside of Edinburgh, Scotland, later this year.

• Part of the CAVForth project funded by the UK government and several companies, the SAE Level 4 buses will serve a 14-mile route.

• Safety drivers will be aboard the five buses, which will be a part of Stagecoach East Scotland's scheduled bus network.

While most of the focus of autonomous tech developers of late has been on robotaxis—specifically, on their pilot deployment in the Bay Area—other vehicle types are also being tested with Level 4 operation in mind.

This month autonomous tech developer Fusion Processing Ltd will show its Enviro200 bus at the Millbrook proving ground in the UK, just months ahead of a planned service launch in Edinburgh, Scotland, by the end of the year.

These autonomous buses—five of which are slated to go into service in the UK in late 2022 featuring SAE Level 4 technology—will be geofenced and confined to a predetermined route, but can operate entirely without a driver behind the wheel.

Once each bus enters service near Edinburgh, it will serve a 14-mile route as a part of Stagecoach East Scotland's scheduled bus network. The five buses will still have safety drivers on board, along with a bus "captain" who will move around the interior, talking to passengers about the autonomous tech on board and answering questions.

The buses themselves will be able to carry up to 36 passengers at a time with a capacity of over 10,000 passengers over a period of a week, with the route connecting Ferrytoll Park & Ride in Fife with the Edinburgh Park transport hub. This will mean quite a lot of Edinburgh residents will be able to say they've been on an autonomous bus.

Since April of this year, the autonomous buses have been undergoing on-road testing in Scotland, ahead of the planned start of passenger service. "On road testing is an exciting milestone in the development of autonomous commercial vehicles and we look forward to welcoming passengers onboard in a few months' time," Jim Hutchinson, Fusion Processing CEO, said earlier this year.

The vehicles themselves—Alexander Dennis Enviro200 single-deck buses—feature an automated drive system by Fusion Processing dubbed CAVstar, which features LiDAR, radar, and optical cameras.

"CAVForth will provide a useful service to local people as well as being a great demonstration of Fusion's automated vehicle technology," said Hutchinson. "The buses are fitted with CAVstar, our automated driving system which combines our own hardware and software to create, safe, full-size buses, operating at SAE Level 4."

The autonomous bus fleet was developed as part of project launched and funded by UK Government's Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), along with commercial partners including Fusion Processing, Bristol Robotics Laboratory, Edinburgh Napier University, Transport Scotland, Stagecoach, and Alexander Dennis.

Should US cities embrace Level 4 tech for buses that will have no driver aboard, or is it too early for such tech? Let us know in the comments below.