THE South Perth Esplanade will be home to Australia’s first driverless bus public trial after the RAC launched it today.
The public will be able to board the ‘Intellibus’ when it travels between Sir James Mitchell Park carpark and The Old Mill along the South Perth Esplanade.
Up to 11 passengers can go on the bus at one time and the public will need to go online to register to go on it.
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READ NOWThe bus can travel up to 45km/h but the trial will see it travel at an average speed of 25km/h.
RAC Group chief executive officer Terry Agnew said it was an exciting day for WA as the bus took to public roads.
“Driverless vehicles are coming and what we are launching on the roads today, the Intellibus, is a driverless, electric shuttle bus,” he said.
“It’s green and environmentally friendly, it’s driverless so it has substantial road-safety benefits.
“Because it is a shuttle bus, it provides a great feeder opportunity into the broader public transport system.”
Mr Agnew said the bus had been brought to WA in April and the RAC had been trialling it on private land.
“At first it will be a limited trial and then based on what we’ve learned, we will expand it,” he said.
“The benefits of this driverless shuttle bus are numerous; road safety, accessibility, flexibility of people travelling and feeding into the broader public transport system.
“The risks that we will be managing are system failure, what happens if there some sort of hacking, what happens in terms of liability but with any advancement of new technology that’s got benefits to society then these risks need to be managed.”
Visit visit racintellibus.com.au to register.