Mercedes Benz autonomus driving bus

The Mercedes-Benz city bus of the future – appropriately called Future Bus – completed a milestone journey that showcased how its CityPilot autonomous driving technology can help it successfully navigate a complicated urban route. The driver is on board and monitors the system, but with a much easier task than before. What this means in that the “Future Bus” will be operated in the future on route which is not burdened by the load of commuter traffic.

CityPilot is based on the technology of the autonomously driving Mercedes-Benz Actros truck with Highway Pilot, which was presented two years ago. In theory, this should make the movement of passengers way more efficient. Mercedes-Benz says the Future Bus “always drives defensively in the interests of its occupants”.

The bus runs using the CityPilot platform, a variant of Daimler’s Highway Pilot. The advantages of CityPilot for our customers are clear: Our Future Bus operates fuel efficiently and with minimal stress on the engine. This in turn positively impacts operating and maintenance costs, vehicle lifetime and availability.

The German manufacturer notes that BRT systems are ideal for autonomous driving, as they feature separate lanes, clearly defined schedules and identical procedures at bus stops.

The City Pilot system combines data from its on-board GPS receiver with vision from nearly a dozen cameras, and its long- and short-range radar units to build up an accurate view of its surroundings. Thanks to data fusion, all the data received create an extremely precise picture and allow the bus to be positioned to within centimetres. The bus arrives at the bus stop in automated mode.

Red lights ahead sees the bus brake independently, coming to a standstill. It can also drive through tunnels and recognize obstacles in the road.

Specifically, in the “lounge” portion of the bus, riders can wirelessly charge their smartphones through inductive charging pads as well as check information on large displays. An electronic ticket system dispenses with the conventional selling and checking of tickets by the driver. Daimler Buses is thereby developing the bus transport system of tomorrow. According to experts, there are now about 180 BRT systems on all continents with a total fleet of approximately 40 000 buses. These systems convey some 30-million passengers every day. It is ideally suitable for BRT systems, with which it is possible to resolve worldwide traffic problems in densely populated areas and metropolitan regions.