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CAVForth Autonomous Bus Of Scotland
Scotland's CAVForth bus service is ready to begin carrying passengers; its fleet of five autonomous vehicles will be in operation by the middle of May, 2023.
CAVForth is a joint project of Fusion Processing, Stagecoach, Alexander Dennis, Transport Scotland, Edinburgh Napier University and Bristol Robotics Lab which is part funded by the UK Government's Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.It will be the first registered bus service in the UK to use full sized autonomous buses. A fleet of five Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV vehicles will cover a 14-mile route, in mixed traffic, at up to 50mph across the iconic Forth Road Bridge from Ferrytoll Park & Ride, in Fife to Edinburgh Park Transport Interchange.
Science fiction fans have been looking forward to this service for an awfully long time; this quote comes from The Little Things, a Henry Kuttner story published in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine in 1946:
Buses without drivers moved close to the curb and stopped at intervals. The lamp posts gave a different sort of light...He hopped one of the robot buses when it stopped (Read more about robot bus)
Update 11-Nov-2023: As far as I know, the first science fiction writers to describe this idea, which they called an autobus were Stanley G. and Helen Weinbaum in the short story Tidal Moon:
THE autobus turned silently down the wide street of Hydropole. Robot-guided, insulated from noise and cold, it was certainly preferable to traveling by hipp.
(Read more about autobus)
End update.
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I might also be thinking of K-9 from Doctor Who.
