Self-Driving Buses in Iceland by 2023?

By 2023, Jóhannes Rúnarsson, managing director of Strætó bus service, hopes to see self-driving buses in Iceland, mbl.is reports. About half of the cost of operating each of Strætó’s buses is labor cost. Increasing the number of buses and offering more frequent rides is, therefore, expensive. Purchasing self-driving buses would be one potential way to cut costs.

For quite some time, self-driving cars have been tested worldwide, and self-driving equipment exists in a number of cars in Iceland. Still, the expectation is that the driver is ready to intervene if needed.

Jóhannes is convinced that this sort of technology is what the future will bring in public transportation, and Strætó is already preparing for such an experimental project.

“We believe it to be 100 percent safe,” he states. If self-driving buses can be tested anywhere, the place to do so is where they have their own dedicated space.” Seventy percent of the first phase of a planned City Line in the capital area will be such dedicated space.

He adds that progress in the development of self-driving buses is fast, although they are still limited to eight to ten-passenger buses. “We’ve been attempting to obtain funding to try this. Hopefully, we’ll see some experimental projects of this kind here in the coming semesters.”

He notes that such projects are already underway in Oslo, Norway, and in Helsinki, Finland. In both cities, a driver is on board as well, and such would be the case here as well. Funding, he adds, is being sought through grants from the European Union and elsewhere.