I had a chat with a DLR "passenger service agent" a few weeks ago (DLR, or Docklands Light Railway being a "fully automated" light rail system in London). He had opened the driving console at the front and was sitting there, I asked if there was a fault or something that meant they were operating in reversion mode (PSAs can drive the trains in certain failure cases).<p>He said DLR introduced a policy many years ago where after 8pm or so (maybe just on Fri/Sat night?) the PSA needs to sit at the open drivers console ready to smack the emergency stop in case of people on the tracks. Before then it's optional, but some PSAs like to do it anyway in case "their train" hits someone.<p>Not really much point to this but I thought it was interesting how the PSAs are effectively put in a position of responsibility for the actions of the autonomous vehicle but presumably are not compensated the same as an active(?) driver would be.<p>Maybe a lot of the desire to move to "autonomous" (or really just more automated if it requires a safety driver) is a workaround for union wages by reclassifying drivers as new made up things.<p>Presumably like a DLR these buses will always require a human to take responsibility in case of crash, accident, fire etc - but this way for arbitrary reasons you can pay less!
You need to keep the bus "captain", because half of a bus driver's job is helping old people figuring out which bus to take and where to go and keeping the passengers in check (to prevent vandalism, throw out rowdies or even call the police if there is violence among the passengers, etc.). Occasionally it does not feel safe to take the bus as it is and without a driver to call the police if something happens, that would be the case much more often.<p>And if you need to keep at least one employee in the bus, why would you take them off the wheel and very likely increase the risk of an accident, while also making it more complicated legally in case an accident happens. I don't see a gain, unless the end game is to get rid of employees inside the bus altogether in which case the service quality would decrease drastically, because that half of the bus driver's job I talked about earlier is ignored completely.<p>Maybe it's a good fit in that specific case with the "pre-selected roads", but I am legitimately concerned about this technology being adopted widespread (esp. in the cities) and I don't like the thought of it.
<i>a bus ‘Captain’ who will move around the saloon, talking to passengers about the service and answering any questions they may have, demonstrating what a future service night feel like...</i><p>They use to call these "bus conductors" before they sacked them all to save money.<p><a href="https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_conductor" rel="nofollow">https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_conductor</a>
I'm interested to know how a full time job of sitting doing nothing at all except be ready to drive a bus full of people at a moment's notice works out.
How? Did machine learning leap forward yesterday when I wasn't looking? Did we achieve even basic common-sense reasoning? Or are they planning to unleash several tonnes of machinery onto the roads filled with passengers guided with little more than a CNN and a sprinkle of reinforcement learning that knows how to stay between the lines?
The company is called Fusion Processing. Is this some sort of tribute to the seventies film The Big Bus?<p><a href="https://youtu.be/Y1SJthmEiWk" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/Y1SJthmEiWk</a><p>How will Dee Dee get to Yoker now?<p><a href="https://youtu.be/0YfRbNipdOg" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/0YfRbNipdOg</a>
The busses will have a safety driver on board, but apparently they expect they will not need to take control at all normally. It will be interesting to see (if possible) how much this holds up in reality.
Last year I got to ride an automated shuttle bus as part of a trial in Cambridge. That had an extremely short route and was very much a trial, with a small number of pre-booked tickets available.[0] Sounds like the Scottish trial is much further along, which is great to hear.<p>[0] <a href="https://www.greatercambridge.org.uk/smart/autonomous-vehicles" rel="nofollow">https://www.greatercambridge.org.uk/smart/autonomous-vehicle...</a>
Apparently it uses a combination of radar, lidar and cameras <a href="https://www.cavforth.com/automated-vehicle-systems/" rel="nofollow">https://www.cavforth.com/automated-vehicle-systems/</a> and presumably a lot of hand-crafted code for the route
What prevents me from standing in front of it and not move? It will just sit there won't it?<p>With a regular bus the driver will get out and give me crap.<p>In Zürich if the trams were autonomous they would be stuck at the stations during rush hours. People run in front of them all the time and the driver needs to be very aware of what is going on. If these same people know the tram is autonomous and has to stop they will be even more careless.<p>I can see autonomous trains working where there is clear separation between the track and people/cars.
I hope autonomous buses are more patient with cyclists than human drivers are. Don't you love it when a bus passes you just before a bus stop, then brakes to a stop right in front of you, forcing you out into traffic to pass. Would only lose five seconds to slow down until the bike is past the stop.