China Self driving buses
I saw a video that shows how Baidu operates self driving buses. I am impressed with their practical approach. 

They use a minibus with a capacity of 8 seats. They do not use a large bus that has a capacity of 40 passengers.

Instead of operating 1 large bus, they have to operate 5 minibus. As the vehicles are self driving, it is better to use many small buses, instead of a large bus.

Their system uses stations, which are pick up and drop off points. The customers send their requests indicating their pick up and drop off points to the server.

An artificial intelligence algorithm in the server will be able to identify the passengers that wish to board from several nearby stations and alight at several stations that are close together. 

An minibus can be dispatched to pick up these customers. The customers will be notified on their app about the number of the vehicle. 

After picking up the customers, the minibus can proceed to the destinations and drop off the customers at their requested stations. The minibus does not need to stop along the way to pick up other customers.

This is similar to calling for a dedicated car, which will be more expensive. By using a minibus that can be shared by several customers, it is possible to reduce the fare by a factor of perhaps four times. 

Compared to a public bus that has to stop at many stops along the route, this service can reduce the travel time by at least half.

I find the Baidu system to be excellent. I congratulate them on this approach.

I saw another video from the Land Transport Authority in Singapore which uses an automatic bus of 60 seats. I believe that this approach was abandoned after a while. It was not workable.

Do you agree that the Baidu approach is very good?

Tan Kin Lian



 

Add Comment

---