World's First All Electric Autonomous Bus Is Available, Built By Volvo And University Researchers

The automotive industry is currently having interest in autonomous technology, in some cases, groups of university researchers, as well as engineering students, are assisting them.

A prime example of this is the recent collaboration of Sweden’s Volvo Buses and researchers from Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The team has produced a 12-meter-long bus, the first of its kind, with autonomous technology and runs entirely on electricity.

The Volvo 7900 electric bus has a 36-seat floor with a capacity of 80 people. The manufacturer said the car does not release any emissions that affect the environment. At the same time, it uses 80% less energy than conventional engines, but still provides the same power.

Besides, the car is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) that makes it capable of self-navigating with centimeter precision. There are also other features such as light detection with sensors and 3D images creating.

According to researchers at NTU, the introduction of AI into the bus system is a necessary improvement, because it will improve the movement of buses in crowded urban areas under tropical weather. They have also studied and enhanced the security of this system so that it can counter cyber attacks.

In addition to cooperating and launching an auto-powered bus with Volvo, NTU is still working on other similar projects. Researchers at this university have been very interested in autonomous technology, especially transport vehicles for many years. Automated vehicle manufacturing companies in the Netherlands, 2Getthere and SMRT Services, which have partnered with NTU, have successfully created a complete line of autonomous mini-buses. Last year, scientists at NTU announced the development of new ranging and light detection sensors,  with reduced production costs by up to 200 times.

This automated electric bus project is a collaboration between the Land Transport Authority (LTA) and NTU, aiming to improve public transports. The autonomous bus' preliminary test has been completed. It will quickly be put on trial runs at the university campus.

Then in April, a similar electric autonomous bus will be put to the test at SMRT's bus station. Here, the bus will be checked for auto parking and driving into the car wash bunker.

Volvo is currently putting a lot of hope into smarter and safer transportations with these innovations. According to Professor Subra Suresh, president of NTU, public transport that is autonomous and using all electric power will absolutely be the trend of future traffic.

In India, a similar and even better invention was developed by a group of students at LPU. They came up with an autonomous bus using solar energy to supply electricity instead of electric drivetrains.