Sweden – Public transport operator, Keolis SA* of Paris, France and Volvo Buses of Gothenburg organised a demonstration of a 12m long autonomous electric bus at the Keolis bus depot in Gothenburg last month. The demonstration saw the bus successfully drive itself between the parking bay and several workstations including cleaning, servicing and electric charging. The demonstration audience included Lars Backström, CEO of Västtrafik (Gothenburg PTA), Malin Andersson, Head of Development and International Affairs, City of Gothenburg, and Mats Peterson, Local Business Manager for Electrification at ABB.

Operating software developed by Volvo ensured the bus was controlled and monitored from a control room. Håkan Agnevall, CEO of Volvo Bus, said: "This marks a very important step in our autonomous journey as we now have successfully shown the commercial benefits an autonomous solution can deliver in a bus depot. Autonomous buses in depots bring new benefits such as more efficient traffic flows, higher productivity, less damages and improved safety. The industry-common charging interface OppCharge {supplied by ABB} is ideally suited for autonomous charging, eliminating the need to connect power cables to the bus in the depot.”