(Bloomberg) — Driverless microbuses started serving the college town of Wageningen, Netherlands, in the first open-ended test in Europe of automated public transport on city streets.
Dutch partners including navigation provider Mapscape, Robot Care Systems and the Technical University of Delft introduced two six-passenger automated vehicles into service on Thursday that could replace standard buses on unprofitable routes. The trial will provide a push to efforts to set up European Union rules for the technology, Minister of Infrastructure Melanie Schultz van Haegensaid at the opening event in Wageningen.
The WEpod models, supplied by French-Indian venture EasyMile, can travel as fast as 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour, but they'll be limited to 25 kph for safety reasons, and initially won't be operated when it rains or snows or at night, Jan Willem van der Wiel, head of the project, said in an interview at the opening event in Wageningen.
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