The driverless bus service across the River Forth north of Edinburgh is to be human-drivenwhile engineers undertake a system upgrade of the self-driving system.

Operator Stagecoach has tweeted that it expects autonomous driving to return in the New Year.

The AB1 service was launched in May, covering a 14-mile route uses the Forth Road Bridge along with A-roads, motorway, bus lanes and private land.

The buses have been using Fusion Processing’s autonomous drive system, CAVStar, which utilises data from a suite of sensors including cameras, LiDAR and radar together with artificial intelligence processing to deliver optimum efficiency throughout the journey, in all traffic conditions. In addition, receiving information directly from traffic signal systems enables the bus to plan its speed to run smoothly run from one green light to the next.

A team of 20 specially-trained safety drivers have been in place for every journey.

(Picture – Highways News)