Eventually, from mid-November, Flemish public transport company De Lijn would be operating self-driving shuttle minibuses to transport passengers between Leuven station and Heverlee. A Belgian first: autonomous vehicles driving in busy city traffic at normal speeds of up to 40 km/h. But more time is needed to fine-tune and becoming fully operational is now postponed to December.
“The software in use adapts well to the city traffic in Leuven,” says Marco Demerling, spokesperson for De Lijn. “But the autonomous shuttles need to cover enough test kilometers so that the artificial intelligence (AI) on board is sufficiently trained for the situation in Leuven.”
De Lijn now hopes to transport the first passengers by the end of December. This also requires a new permit, in which the safety driver is no longer at the wheel, but is allowed to sit in the back of the vehicle. The vans have room for eight passengers.
Maiden voyage
The shuttles made their maiden voyage in September, escorted by police. “The journey went very well and smoothly,” reported Leuven’s alderman for Mobility, Dirk Vansina (CD&V). “The bus gained its first experiences and scanned the environment to learn and become ‘smarter’. We will continue to do this in the coming period, not daily, but several times a week.”
Initially, the timing was to start carrying passengers in mid-November. Until December, the buses will not carry passengers, allowing their driving behavior in traffic to be thoroughly fine-tuned. However, there will always be a steward on board who can intervene if necessary, eventually taking a seat in the back and not at the wheel.
Next, passengers will be able to travel on these minibuses. There is room for eight people. Passengers will use a digital ticket via the app, an SMS ticket, or their subscription. The cost of a ride will remain the same as with the current buses.
The route will continue to run between Leuven station and Heverlee, a five-kilometer distance, with a steward on board for safety reasons. The pilot project will run until the end of January.
Chinese technology
De Lijn had been planning to use self-driving shuttles for passenger transport for many years, but had to put the plans on hold a few years ago because the technology was not yet ready.
The vehicles, equipped with 20 sensors, will be supplied by the Chinese technology company WeRide, in which Allianz Ventures, a Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi fund, is a shareholder, and have already been successfully tested in Zurich, Valence, Barcelona, and, most recently, in Paris.
The pilot project is part of a European initiative funded by EIT Urban Mobility, an EU body that accelerates the transition to sustainable mobility. The project budget is 600,000 euros.
Unions are not concerned for the time being
With this project, De Lijn aims to harness the potential of autonomous vehicles to increase road safety, reduce traffic jams, and alleviate parking pressure. Outside city centers, they can also provide last-mile connections and reliable transport to rural areas and for people with limited mobility.
The unions are critical of self-driving buses, but are not currently concerned about potential job losses, partly because they believe the legislation is not yet ready.
Improve public transport services
According to Pieter Vansteenwegen, professor of public transport optimization and director of the Institute for Mobility at KU Leuven, self-driving buses are inevitable and necessary to improve public transport services. For example, to prevent everyone from traveling even more kilometers in the future due to the arrival of self-driving cars, because it will become less ‘bad’ to be stuck in traffic.
“In a self-driving car, you can check your emails, do your work, watch TV, and relax at the same time,” says Vansteewegen to the Belga press agency. “The threshold for taking the car will, therefore, become lower, which means that more kilometers will be driven.”
However, because self-driving buses can run early in the morning, late at night, or during the night – shifts that are not ideal for drivers – Vansteegwegen believes that self-driving buses could significantly improve public transport services. “We also know that drivers’ wages are high and that De Lijn has problems finding enough drivers. All these difficulties disappear with self-driving buses.”
According to the professor, self-driving buses will also become commonplace in Belgium in the future. “The technology is there. In cities such as San Francisco and countries such as China, self-driving taxis are a common sight on the streets,” he says. “It is a matter of political choices and investments, which, incidentally, will pay for themselves in the long term, before autonomous buses will also break through here. “
