Self-driving buses to be trialled between Fife and Edinburgh

A bus route between Fife and Edinburgh has been chosen as one of the test sites for self-driving vehicles, the UK Government has announced.

Project CAV Forth will see five single decker buses converted to include an AI driver to provide an estimated 10,000 weekly journeys.

Fusion Processing joined forces with Edinburgh Napier University, the University of the West of England and Transport Scotland to bid for the funding.

London will also test autonomous taxis as part of the first round of public trials as part of a £25m Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Intelligent Mobility Fund grant.

It will be the first time people in the UK will experience self-driving vehicles.

Winning the contracts, the two schemes included a commitment to include social behavioural research to see how passengers and other drivers respond to AI vehicles.

This will enable government to measure how driverless technology can seamlessly integrate into society, applying findings to the development for future autonomous service models.

The UK Government said it wanted self-driving vehicles on UK roads by 2021 as part of its modern industrial strategy.

Business Secretary Greg Clark said: “Self-driving cars will revolutionise the way we move goods and people around the UK.

“These industrial strategy projects and investments are exciting examples of our long-term plan in action - ensuring we build on our strengths to reap the rewards as we accelerate towards our ambition to have autonomous vehicles on UK roads by 2021.”

It is hoped the technology will improve safety on roads and encourage car sharing.