Self-driving bus era arrives as autonomous buses take to Cambridge’s roads
Self-driving passenger transport has arrived in Cambridge, with the launch of the Greater Cambridge Partnership’s Connector bus.
The 15-seater autonomous vehicle completed its first official journeys on Tuesday (24 June), running between Madingley Road Park & Ride and around the University of Cambridge’s Eddington neighbourhood and Cambridge West Innovation District.
A limited number of morning and afternoon trips are now running on weekdays in the early phase of the trial – and it is free to ride.
The Cambridge Independent was on board on Monday (23 June) as a soft launch took place.
We took the trip from the Park & Ride site to Cambridge West, where the bus stopped in front of the recently-opened Ray Dolby Centre. A safety driver was on board and had the ability to take control should it have been required.
The bus, operated by Whippet and using autonomous technology from Fusion Processing, is fitted with sensors so it can detect its surroundings, navigate and stop should anything or anyone run out in front of it.
The trial of the bus follows extensive virtual and on-road testing. Its introduction is designed to enhance local connections and improve access to places of work and study, as well as community and sports facilities.
A second bus route, featuring a larger single-decker that will travel from Trumpington Park & Ride to Babraham Road Park & Ride via Cambridge Biomedical Campus, is expected to launch in early September.
Dan Clarke, head of innovation and technology at the Greater Cambridge Partnership, said: “This is an exciting milestone, but it’s just the beginning.
“People may have already seen the bus going around Eddington and Cambridge West from Madingley Park & Ride recently, as, after the extensive on-track training with the drivers, we’ve been running the bus on the road without passengers to learn more about how other road users interact with the technology. We’re now moving gradually to the next stage of this trial by inviting passengers to use Connector.
“As with all new things, our aim is to introduce this new technology in a phased way that balances the trialling of these new systems with safety and the passenger experience. This will ensure we can learn more about this technology and showcase the potential for self-driving vehicles to support sustainable, reliable public transport across Cambridge.”
The Connector trial is part of a national Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) programme backed by the government to explore how autonomous buses can be integrated into public transport systems.
Dan added: “We’ve been involved in this phase for a long time; we think the technology is really maturing.
“It’s really early days but the bus can operate against traffic, it can drive round the route, and as we go through the trial it will improve, so I think there’s a real future for automated vehicles.”
The GCP has been planning autonomous bus services for about four years.
“We have done a trial before,” he said. “But we had to apply for government funding and that obviously takes time as well.”
After all of the passengers got off the bus in front of the Ray Dolby Centre, Amanda Nolan, head of transport at the University of Cambridge, told the Cambridge Independent: “We are one of the partners on the project, with Greater Cambridge Partnership, so we’re very much in support of this.
“At the university, we’re really committed to sustainable transport modes and exploring opportunities for new, innovative future options – one of which being having a bus without a driver.
“We think there’s a real opportunity to extend the university’s bus network further, so we’re really excited to get involved.”
She added: “I think one of the challenges that we have is that we’re located all across Cambridge; we [the university] generate significant amounts of traffic and congestion for Cambridge, so bringing in schemes like this is helping us connect our staff between sites and also helping us towards our net zero ambitions.”
Matt Johnson, head of development for North West Cambridge for the University of Cambridge, which covers the Eddington development, said: “If you wanted to walk from The Hauser Forum up to Sainsbury’s in Eddington, it takes about 20 minutes at the moment.
“But using this service, if it’s running continuously, people can get there in five minutes – so it’s great for workers at Cambridge West and great for residents at Eddington who work at Cambridge West.
“Eddington has housed over 2,000 university employees to date, in the five or six years it’s been open, and many of those are post-doctoral researchers – and many of those are in the labs that we see around us here, down on the Cambridge West site.”
Jim Hutchinson, CEO of Bristol-based Fusion Processing, the company providing the technology to be installed on buses, said: “We make autonomous drive systems, so we’ve developed the technology that’s used on this vehicle and other vehicles.
“This is a new trial of our technology; it follows on from other trials that we’ve done in other regions, and Cambridge have been very keen to see how autonomous vehicle technology might ultimately become part of the mix in the transport needs of the region.
“We’re very keen to participate in all these sorts of initiatives and very pleased to be working with the Greater Cambridge Partnership and delivering a working vehicle.”
At present, each bus is scheduled to have a driver on board until at least 2027.
“Ultimately, we need a system that can work in all scenarios, because although today we’ve got a safety driver, we’re soon moving towards the point where we don’t have one,” explained Jim, who founded Fusion Processing back in 2012.
“So you need a system which can function across a lot of different conditions – and can still function in the case where you get a fault.”
To date, however, the legislation is not in place for driverless buses.
“There’s currently legislation going through,” said Jim. “The primary legislation was passed and they’re now working on secondary.
“That’s the means by which we get a vehicle approved to go on the road without a human driver on it. That’s still going through, and that probably will take until 2027.”
Jim says that Fusion has completed trials in London, Scotland and Oxfordshire but says Cambridge “will be the only city that’s running a live passenger service at the moment, to carry public passengers”.
Passengers elsewhere have been apprehensive at first, he said.
“I think what we’ve found in the past is that people are nervous, and I think they are reassured initially by having a driver,” said Jim.
“But I think they quickly forget about that, and I think if people are using a service, they will get very comfortable with the fact that it’s driving itself and I suspect, over time, it would not matter whether the driver’s there or not.
“Part of the reason we want to do this is so that people can become more comfortable with these sorts of services and this sort of technology, because the thing we don’t really want to do is just wait until 2027 – we can do all of this now.”
Ed Cameron, director of Whippet Coaches, the operator for the new Connector service, said: “The drivers we’ve got as part of our team are very experienced bus drivers.
“They’ve been driving with us for many years, including on the guided busway, so they’ve been trialling it for three to four weeks, both track training away from the public highway and on roads here in Cambridge.
“And I think this is the next step, allowing passengers on board and seeing what they think.”
Ed says that Whippet received a large number of applications when it advertised the autonomous bus driver job.
“They’re really interested in the technology and its application into transport in the future,” he said.
