It stretches for 22 kilometers.

In a UK first, the first line of self-driving buses will go into service in Edinburgh next week, although drivers will remain inside the vehicles to pick them up in an emergency.

“The bus’s self-driving technology has been tested in the past, but this is the first time it has been used on a bus route,” Stagecoach’s public affairs director Peter Stephens told AFP during a presentation nearby on Thursday. Edinburgh.

About 10,000 passengers a week travel along the 22-kilometre route west of the Scottish capital.

The five buses, which are allowed to travel at speeds of up to 50 km per hour, will have a driver under British law that prohibits vehicles from operating entirely on public roads. .

Another employee will also be on board to ensure passengers have their transport tickets and answer their questions.

A system based on artificial intelligence will monitor other vehicles on the road to avoid collisions, while cameras and radar will scan the road to avoid pedestrians.

According to Peter Stephens, the service will be safer and more efficient, and will offer fuel savings of up to 20%.

He explained that the vehicle system will be able to “respond faster compared to human interactions” when needed, noting that the buses will provide more data over time to “improve autonomous travel time.”

In 2021, a driverless electric bus will be put into service in the Spanish city of Málaga in a project described as a European pioneer. Similar trials were conducted in South Korea in the same year and in Singapore in early 2023.