Could Self-Driving Buses Bring Vehicle Autonomy Home?

Currently, the company’s buses rely on Level 3 technology, operating on routes with a human driver at the wheel as a precaution. But the company’s CEO, Eran Ophir, said IEEE Spectrum Imagry is working to achieve the first-ever Tier 4 certification for its standard city bus by Q3 2025.

“Based on our track record, we are confident that our buses will meet the standards set by the rulemaking authorities,” Ophir says. Ophir added that there has been no movement in this direction in the United States, because although Imagri has worked Autonomous vehicles On public roads in Arizona, California and Nevada, the regulatory environment there does not yet support self-driving buses.

When asked about the benefits of using a self-driving city bus instead of a fleet of private cars, Ophir agreed with DeGood’s assessment. He points out that robo-taxis not only exacerbate road congestion because they dramatically increase the number of miles traveled during a given 24-hour period, but they are also less attractive as a business proposition.

“Imagry doesn’t manufacture robots because we think it’s an area with a problematic business model,” Ophir says. “The cost of the hardware installed on those vehicles is $70,000 to $100,000. You can’t take this solution into the average passenger vehicle that costs $30,000 or $40,000. It will take two or three years until we see any return.” On this investment, he says this concern about cost is the reason why Imagry does not use lidar or radar systems and instead relies on cameras, which are much cheaper.

Imagry buses are equipped with eight specialized cameras, each monitoring a unique aspect of the environment. One tracks traffic signals, another monitors pavement markings such as crosswalks and lane dividers, and another monitors pedestrians. A Machine learning The algorithm combines the data from these cameras into a high-resolution map. This bus map provides a bird’s eye view of the areas surrounding the bus, taking into account everything within a 300 meter radius. This allows the on-board deep neural network responsible for motion planning to make reliable decisions about acceleration, braking, lane switching or turning.

The self-generating map approach offers some advantages, according to Imagry’s technical director. Ilan Shaviv. He adds that compared to centralized mapping systems, fast maps require less computing power and eliminate the need for a communication link to an external map, an entry point that can be exploited by cyberattacks.

Self-driving bus competitors

Imagry is by no means alone in the field of self-driving buses. MAN Truck and Bus Company He has partnership with Mobile i The two companies are merging Mobileye’s IQ Systems on chip for sensing, mapping and driving policy with MAN commercial vehicles.

Bus manufacturer Karsan He has Development of e-Atak electric buseswhich uses lidar, radar, visible light cameras, and thermal cameras to sense living or inanimate objects, preserve them, and track their location in relation to their environment. Iveco and EasyMile have jointly developed a Level 4 self-driving bus and hope to achieve certification, pending the results of Level 3 tests. Their bus also features From the car to the infrastructure Capabilities that allow the bus to anticipate traffic signal phases. Previous research has shown that this ability means… Smoother stops and restarts with less power. When the bus completes its scheduled rounds, on-board technology allows the bus to maneuver itself into a parking spot at the depot.

Governments across Europe and Asia are embracing this shift. And if it is Level 3 experiences If you open the door to Level 4 autonomy on city buses, the days of chatting with the bus driver and asking for suggestions about where to eat, shop, or sightsee — or which parts of the city to avoid — may increasingly be in the rearview mirror.