Research for autonomous buses without operator

Purpose and goal:

The project explored the integration of autonomous buses into Swedish public transportation with the aim of reducing environmental impact, enhancing traffic safety, and promoting technology. The outcomes included technological advancements and legislative insights, along with prototypes for driverless operation from a control center. The project enabled collaboration and knowledge sharing between organizations and its results will influence future developments in the field.

Expected results and effects:

The FOKA project has contributed results that support the integration of autonomous vehicles in public transport. This includes increased knowledge about technology, laws, user experiences, improved vehicle operation, the development of a control center with monitoring and support functions, and tests with driverless vehicles.

Approach and implementation:

The overarching research question of the project has been: "How can autonomous vehicles be used in public transport to make it attractive, sustainable, and promote shared mobility?" This question has been broken down into sub-questions related to legislation, user experience, communication, human-technology interaction, control centers, and data usage. The project adopted an agile methodology, testing solutions in a test environment as well as in real-world operations. Workshops, interviews, and discussions with passengers were also used.