About a hundred people will travel in a prototype shuttle on a route in Greenwich over the next three weeks. Oxbotica, the firm behind the shuttle, said that 5,000 people had applied to take part in the trial.
The vehicle is controlled by a computer, although there will be a trained human on board who can override the controls if necessary. The bus reaches a max speed of 10mph (16.1kmph).
Chief executive Graeme Smith has said that one of the aims is to, “gain acceptance from members of the public for vehicles sharing this kind of space with them.”
The shuttle seats four people, carrying no steering wheel or brake pedal. Five cameras and three lasers are mounted on it to help it navigate the two-mile riverside route laid out for it, where it will have to compete for road space with pedestrians and cyclists. The cameras can see up to 100m ahead, allowing it to come to a steady stop if it detects that something is in its path, with the capacity for an emergency brake if required.
The Gateway team believe that paying passengers could be using the system by 2019 on a trial basis in Greenwich, with the aim that it could be rolled out elsewhere afterwards.
Oxbotica has already conducted a trial of driverless technology in Milton Keynes, allowing journalists and a traffic warden to test out the cars.
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