Are you ready to put your Kids on Self-Driving School Bus?

Did you know that it is possible for our children to travel in self-driving school buses? Well, the technology and our confidence on the technology are leading to new innovations! It is not far from stepping onto self-driven bus.

Government went ahead to make policies and standards to provide safety to students by setting special laws for school buses in India. It is our duty to drive our future generation, kids between school and home with proper care and safety. Schools in India follow the directives of the higher authority to provide a safe and comfortable commute to children. School bus manufactures have to adhere to the standards for interiors— speed, cameras, fire extinguishers, seat belts, emergency doors and even stop sign and lights for the exterior; not to forget the bright yellow colour so that they are visible from far. Day by day, standards for security of school buses are increasing.

The use of automation for best school buses in question starts from the inception of small vehicles to start with. This started in the field of transportation with the cars— autonomous cars. Work on autonomous cars goes back to 1977, with a trial car in Japan for limited function of speed and signal processing only. Ever since, improvisation has taken place from speed, to obstacle recognition to night time driving.

Production of the first vehicle Navlab1,started in 1986. Autonomous Land Vehicle in a Neural Network (ALVINN) was used to test vehicle well into the 1990s.

It was envisioned that it would revolutionize the transportation system, with personal self-driving hovering cars.Significant benefits were believed to include reduced mobility and infrastructure costs, increased safety.

In 1991, US government passed a bill to develop autonomous vehicles, which culminated in 20 automated vehicles, including cars, buses, and trucks. In 1995, USA, Navlab, a mini-van was driven from coast to coast covering almost 3000 miles.This was called “No Hands Across America.”

During the same period, transportation and autonomous vehicles were also developing in Germany, UK and other European countries.   It took another decade after Nav lab that a completely automated public carrier started in Netherlands. 

The Park Shuttle in 2005 became world’s first driverless vehicle to carry general public in a driverless vehicle with no driver or steward on the bus.

Must read: Why Happy Bus Is The Safest School Bus?

With time, research and development in this field led to the outcome of many variants in automobile industry. For instance, in 2015 a two-year trial period of driverless buses carrying up to nine people at a time started touring in the city of Sion, Switzerland. Though humans are involved in monitoring the bus operation as it is in aeroplanes. In 2017, Sweden started 100 Volvo autonomous buses which were monitored by GPS, cameras and other sensors, so that they can be navigated around the city's traffic without incident. Though, the matter of animals suddenly running across the road still needs to be addressed. Of these, the worst were the 5,486 collisions with moose.

2018 has become the year of Autonomous buses

More and more countries and bus body builders are encouraging the new technology and getting in the stride of providing autonomous buses to resolve infrastructure costs, increased safety, increased mobility, increased customer satisfaction, and reduced crime. 2018 marks the first year of commercialisation for autonomous driving.

In 2018, Scandinavia also started with autonomous public bus, but there was a requirement of an employee to be present on the bus, so that it can manually override the autonomous controls with a brake button if a dangerous situation occurs. UK startedtrial of full-sized driverless bus for the first time this year. UK bus engineering director said the bus, which is being designed in partnership with bus body builder and the technology company, “could, in time, help improve safety and efficiency within our depots, and over the longer term, help transform bus travel in the future.”Passenger services using small driverless vehicles have been given trials in France, while China has already tested larger driverless buses on major city roads in Shenzhen. Meanwhile in March 2018, autonomous shuttle bus, EasyMile started public use on the basis of approved government regulations on driverless vehicles. Now, China’s company Baidu along with bus manufacturer King Long is entering big time by selling more than 100 autonomous products which will be exported to many countries. Their 14-seater Apolong has no steering wheel, driver's seat, accelerator or brake.

THIS IS A BIG ACCOMPALISHMENT IN THE NEW AUTONOMOUS TRANSPORTATION!

Recommended: Why School Buses Are Safer Means Of Transport For Kids?

It is apparently believed that the benefits also include a potentially significant reduction in traffic collisions resulting injuries; and related costs, including less need for insurance. But……

THERE’S NO ROSE WITHOUT A THORN

It is rightly said that there is no rose without a thorn. Autonomous vehicles might be the future in transportation and revolutionise driving but the first car casualty took place in Florida with a Tesla Model S in self-driving Autopilot mode. The car hit 18-wheel tractor-trailer and its brakes failed in the time of need. This aggregated a new debate but the answers are still to be found.

WELCOME HANNAH! SAY GOOD BYE TO TRADITIONAL SCHOOL BUS

How would you feel if you ferried students from one location to another in a safer, more efficient manner than human-operated vehicles?Take a closer look at the topic we are considering and it will be obvious that within a stipulated area and at lower speeds, autonomous buses [school buses] are apt.

Hannah, the school bus, is the brain child of the three companies— Teague, Boeing and Nike— and is designed to be a "futuristic self-driving pod" which is capable of taking up to six children at a time to school. It has an intercom that allows an adult to give orders – most likely to keep a lockdown on any bullying – and can automatically reroute itself to the hospital in the case of an emergency. These buses are intelligent enough to recognize each student by his/her face.

WHERE DOES INDIA GO FROM HERE…..

India is not far behind; Tata Motors began trials for driverless buses at its Pune campus, where a full-fledged bus plies on a fixed route, without any human intervention. Tata Motors says it is taking extreme caution to ensure that the vehicle adheres to safety norms. Currently the buses run at less than 10 kmph within the campus. However, as the platform stabilises, the company said it would test them at higher speeds and more realistic road conditions. Lack of disciplined driving makes driverless technology extremely difficult for Indian roads. However, buses that ply on a dedicated corridor or at industrial sites or rural locations may not have such limitations. That has sparked interest from Indian manufacturers to try driver less technology in these areas. In Indian perspective,“Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) would ... solve significant challenges for drivers, making the drive less stressful and a lot safer,” For instance, the Range Rover Evoque has a ‘Park Assist’ feature, wherein the car parks itself in the nearest vacant parking spot.

Roads do not have markings nor are there any traffic rules that the drivers can follow. Initial setting with automatic or assisted brakes, assisted parking, and adaptive engine will see a faster adoption. Bus body builders are taking a different route of bring Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning to tackle the Indian situation as much as possible. They are focusing on making the technology so powerful that it becomes eye of the vehicle.

IS HANNAH FOR INDIA, INDIAN PARENTS?

The reliance on technology and aping the west without considering the standards is not that India or Indian Bus Manufacturers can look at. Implementation of a legal framework and establishment of government regulations is the foremost thing that will play a role in conceptualising Autonomous School Bus. Everything in the future is expected to be autonomous and embracing self-driving school buses now is important to ensure that things transition smoothly in the future. Since autonomous vehicles are safer than human drivers, the move to switch to self-driving school buses will be an easy decision, but a difficult one to complete.

How would you prefer your kids to travel in the future in driverless vehicles is all dependent in the trust in the technology? Now, the big question is that can these safety standards be followed in the school buses?