In autumn, an autonomous bus driving without a driver will run regularly for two months in the Užupis district of Vilnius.
Vilnius municipality company "Communication services" representative Solveiga Stankevičienė says that the company is obliged to test a regular route with a self-driving bus by participating in the European public transport in the integration project.
"Iki" (trade network - BNS) program with "LastMile" and, of course, cooperation with European partners in Finland and Norway, who already have regular routes with such a public transport service, encouraged us to choose this option," S. Stankevičienė told BNS.
"And our lack of drivers forces us to consider some other public transport services in the city," added the representative of "Transportation Services".
According to S. Stankevičienė, the bus with 6-8 seats and the capacity to transport up to 12 passengers should run in the inner streets of Užupis for two months in the autumn and take passengers to bus stops in the surrounding streets free of charge.
According to the representative of "Transport Services", the test of the autonomous bus should begin in the second half of September.
Vehicle rental, for which the market was consulted between the end of May and the beginning of June, as well as the installation of the necessary temporary stops In Užupi the municipality has provided 80 thousand euros.
According to S. Stankevičienė, the pilot project will show whether such buses could continuously supplement the capital's public transport system in the future.
"Through this project, we aim to check both the infrastructure of the city of Vilnius and the existing public transport system, whether it would be worthwhile for us to invest money in this type of transport," said S. Stankevičienė.
According to her, the bus will most likely be rented from foreign companies, because there are no ones in Lithuania that can rent it.
According to S. Stankevičienė, autonomous buses currently run regularly in the Finnish capital Helsinki, as well as in the territory of Tampere University in this country, in the Norwegian city of Stavanger, and were previously tested in German cities.
Last year, from the end of June to the end of September, three driverless cars developed by the Estonian company Clevon served the customers of the LastMile startup in the Old Town, Naujamiestis and Žvērynas districts of Vilnius. In 2022, the startup tested them in Balsiai, a suburb of Vilnius.
The Ministry of Transport simplified the coordination of the technical parameters and routes of autonomous cars from September last year, but provided more responsibilities for manufacturers of self-driving vehicles in case they get into a traffic accident.
Author Giedrius Gaidamavičius
