Incredible reason why new driverless bus fails in London | UK | News
The driverless bus solution in London was rejected by transport experts before it was rolled out across the city. The Ohmio vehicle made its first visit to London earlier this week and is traveling at 25 miles per hour. The slower mode of travel takes passengers from Barnes High Street to Hammersmith Bridge and has no steering wheel.
Instead, there are only two benches for passengers to sit on and alternative options for disabled passengers who need ramp access. Passengers currently must be seated and wear seat belts, but in the future it will be able to carry 14 people and operate without personnel. Despite these revolutions in technology, London is unlikely to approve their use anytime soon.
A spokesperson for the Transport Authority told London Centric: “We have no plans to introduce these vehicles on Hammersmith Bridge and no plans to introduce driverless buses elsewhere on the network.”
There is also the issue of how automated, robotic vehicles comply with the Highway Code.
London Centric reported: “Technicians on board explain that autonomous vehicles are too tame. They sometimes insist on complying with the Road Rules, which is incompatible with rapid progress on the capital’s streets.”
The bus is also air-conditioned and is the first of its kind to be tested in London. This marks the first test of automated buses in real conditions on London’s public roads, alongside human drivers in private cars and vans.
Charles Campion, a local architect and member of the Barnes Hammersmith Electric Light Transit group, says the team is testing the next steps of transport in London.
He said: “This is the future of transport: autonomous vehicles. The future of taxi transport, personal transport, but also public transport.”
The team behind the driverless bus also proposed driverless capsule vehicles. Community groups where the buses were shown approved of its use, given the difference in weight between TfL buses and this newly developed accessible bus.
A standard TfL single-decker bus weighs around 15 tonnes. Unlike robotaxis, the pods follow a fixed route and weigh just three tonnes. The community group says this would comply with the bridge’s weight limits. But much of the purpose of these lightweight vehicles depends on redeveloping and maintaining the Hammersmith Bridge to support heavier vehicles.
“The government does not have a business case to fund the reconstruction of Hammersmith Bridge,” Campion said. “We have to be realistic and accept where we are right now. We’re looking at a fleet of maybe 10 vehicles, eight of which are operational and one capsule can cross the bridge at any given time. We could transport thousands of people a day.”
But Stephen Bush of the Financial Times warned: “The people of Hammersmith and Barnes mostly get what they want – a nice car-free bridge. Wandsworth drivers will have to make longer journeys.”
