Gregor Vukasinovič
Un.Impressive
Driverless autonomous-ish buses. Several cities throughout the country have tried one or two of them and most of them soon concluded, nope. Astonishing as the technology may be, we won't be pursuing this any further. And then there's Monheim. Monheim being Monheim dove in head first and built a brand new depot and bought five or six vehicles.
It's been a while now that I wanted to take a ride on one of these, and now that I have, frankly, I really wonder which kind of application or market they are intended for. First of, they aren't truly autonomous. Not in Monheim at least. There's still a staff member required on board as a guard at all times. So any argument along the lines of saving personnel (compared to a normal bus) is out of the window right from the start.
The good thing first, as long as they work, which they did at least occasionally during my short test, they're a convenient mode of covering short distances the majority of people could walk, and some could walk faster in fact. If nothing else, then on rainy days at least. They seat up to six passengers and offer standing room for about the same amount, as long as nobody comes along with a wheelchair or a baby stroller. To make it short, those groups are about the only ones I could see really profiting from this technology. Except, not quite, more on that later.
The guard is technically only there in case something goes wrong. In that case, they have to grab a remote control - looks a bit like one for an RC toy car, only beefier - and drive the vehicle manually. At a reduced speed of 5 km/h maximum, instead of the normal 15 to 20.
And that's where the trouble starts. Unfortunately, it doesn't take much at all for the bus to determine something is wrong. A car parked too close to the road? Emergency stop. A car or a cyclist overtaking with too little distance? Emergency stop. A trash bin placed carelessly? Emergency stop. Presumably pedestrians getting too close, or a cat, or a pigeon... you guessed it. And those emergency stops are quite harsh. I could definitely see someone falling over if they were standing and didn't see it coming. Luckily the guard usually sees it coming and can warn the passengers. An elderly person who has trouble enough as it is, keeping themselves on their feet or their walking aid... frankly I can't see a chance they'll remain standing for the duration of the ride if it keeps doing that.
Once the obstacle on the road is cleared, the guard presses a button on the touchscreen at the front, and the bus resumes automatic operation. I guess in fully autonomous operation, the passengers are supposed to do that? Assess when the road is clear enough for the software and give it the go?
Further, considering that each vehicle costs about the same as a full size city bus, between 200,000 and 300,000 Euros, the economical argument falls apart even more. Speaking of the economy, I got my ride for free at least. They were just shutting down the system due to some technical difficulties, and my bus was on the way to the depot.
All in all, I have a hard time seeing this system as a meaningful addition to regular everyday public transit. Wherever this technology might be useful, assuming the permanent emergency braking gets eliminated, it'd have to be quite the niche application. Maybe clinics with large grounds. Or parks, cemeteries. Large parking lots, at an airport perhaps. Places where you go distances you'd consider to cover by bicycle, if you could reasonably bring one here. At least that second criterion, Monheim old town doesn't meet.
Un.Impressive
Driverless autonomous-ish buses. Several cities throughout the country have tried one or two of them and most of them soon concluded, nope. Astonishing as the technology may be, we won't be pursuing this any further. And then there's Monheim. Monheim being Monheim dove in head first and built a brand new depot and bought five or six vehicles.
It's been a while now that I wanted to take a ride on one of these, and now that I have, frankly, I really wonder which kind of application or market they are intended for. First of, they aren't truly autonomous. Not in Monheim at least. There's still a staff member required on board as a guard at all times. So any argument along the lines of saving personnel (compared to a normal bus) is out of the window right from the start.
The good thing first, as long as they work, which they did at least occasionally during my short test, they're a convenient mode of covering short distances the majority of people could walk, and some could walk faster in fact. If nothing else, then on rainy days at least. They seat up to six passengers and offer standing room for about the same amount, as long as nobody comes along with a wheelchair or a baby stroller. To make it short, those groups are about the only ones I could see really profiting from this technology. Except, not quite, more on that later.
The guard is technically only there in case something goes wrong. In that case, they have to grab a remote control - looks a bit like one for an RC toy car, only beefier - and drive the vehicle manually. At a reduced speed of 5 km/h maximum, instead of the normal 15 to 20.
And that's where the trouble starts. Unfortunately, it doesn't take much at all for the bus to determine something is wrong. A car parked too close to the road? Emergency stop. A car or a cyclist overtaking with too little distance? Emergency stop. A trash bin placed carelessly? Emergency stop. Presumably pedestrians getting too close, or a cat, or a pigeon... you guessed it. And those emergency stops are quite harsh. I could definitely see someone falling over if they were standing and didn't see it coming. Luckily the guard usually sees it coming and can warn the passengers. An elderly person who has trouble enough as it is, keeping themselves on their feet or their walking aid... frankly I can't see a chance they'll remain standing for the duration of the ride if it keeps doing that.
Once the obstacle on the road is cleared, the guard presses a button on the touchscreen at the front, and the bus resumes automatic operation. I guess in fully autonomous operation, the passengers are supposed to do that? Assess when the road is clear enough for the software and give it the go?
Further, considering that each vehicle costs about the same as a full size city bus, between 200,000 and 300,000 Euros, the economical argument falls apart even more. Speaking of the economy, I got my ride for free at least. They were just shutting down the system due to some technical difficulties, and my bus was on the way to the depot.
All in all, I have a hard time seeing this system as a meaningful addition to regular everyday public transit. Wherever this technology might be useful, assuming the permanent emergency braking gets eliminated, it'd have to be quite the niche application. Maybe clinics with large grounds. Or parks, cemeteries. Large parking lots, at an airport perhaps. Places where you go distances you'd consider to cover by bicycle, if you could reasonably bring one here. At least that second criterion, Monheim old town doesn't meet.