Automating Public Transport: Driverless City Bus
As an assigment for the MSc Design & Transport course, this project's aim was to analyze Coventry's current bus system and propose changes on it, in order to adapt it to the driverless technology that is trending in the automotive sector, but still lacks efforts when it comes to buses, the most used type of public transport in the world. Another aim is to raise awareness on this topic, because, if we want this new technology to reach as many people as possible, we need to change this attitude.
Benefits of adopting driverless technology on UK's city buses
Moodboard
- Friendly and trustful technology
- Safe and peaceful experience
- Environmentally responsible
- Easy and enjoyable commuting/travelling through the city of Coventry
Sketches, storyboards and testing models
Lower deck overview
Front lower deck and door area details
- Cameras and emergency handles evenly distributed along the vehicle, with real time surveillance.
- The vehicles also have screens on the corners of the ceiling, showing live information about date, time, weather forecast, holiday messages and important notifications.
- On each bus stop covered by the driverless buses, there will be a live panel showing the upcoming routes. When the rider sees his/her bus is coming next, they must press the given button also installed in order to request it to stop.
Rear staircase and Wheelchair area details
Rider's experience: interacting with the autonomous system
- A special phone is located inside each vehicle, and it’s directly connected to a Call Centre, free of charge, at any time. By using it, the operator already receives information about the vehicle the user is calling from, and can take proper measures more efficiently.
- Call Centre 24/7 with trained operators with full knowledge about the timetables and routes, driverless system functions, geographical understanding of the places where the buses pass by, safety and emergency measures, and, if the problem is urgent and cannot be solved remotely, they can send a specialized professional to their location (GPS detected).
- Eventually, there could be few assistants in busiest routes in order to offer their help and clarify any doubts about the new system, but that shouldn’t be frequent in the long range.
- Within buses operating inside Coventry, traditionally each bus is “baptized” with a name when registered, usually with names of employees’s relatives (mostly, if not strictly, feminine). With the objetive of making the new system less frightening and more reliable to riders of all ages, the already personified vehicles received character and spoken language. Commonly applied to robots and any form of artificial intelligence that must interact with people, humanizing the technology helps people feeling more at ease, trusting and creating an emotional connection with them.
