Britain | Autonomous vehicles

Aboard Britain’s first commercial self-driving bus

The technology accelerates; the lawmakers apply the brakes

Driver Stuart Doidge monitors an autonomous bus as it drives across the Forth Road Bridge between Edinburgh and Fife, during a press preview for the CAVForth autonomous bus service, AB1, in Queensferry, Scotland on May 11, 2023. The service, set to be the first registered service in the UK to use full-sized autonomous buses, will have two members of staff on board -- a Safety Driver in the driver's seat to monitor the technology, and a 'Captain' in the saloon to take tickets and answer customers questions. (Photo by Andy Buchanan / AFP) (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Image: Getty Images
|Edinburgh

The AB1 bus service to Edinburgh seems much like any other. It leaves Ferrytoll Park and Ride, on the north bank of the River Forth, and crosses onto the M90 motorway, reaching a top speed of 50mph and encountering a smattering of junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights on its 25-minute journey into the city. None of this would be at all remarkable—but for the fact that it does so without any input from a human driver.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline “Controlled experiment”

How should America lead? The Biden doctrine and its flaws

From the May 20th 2023 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

British MPs vote in favour of assisted dying

A monumental social reform is closer to being realised

This illustration depicts Keith Starmer and Rachel Reeves set against a background of UK, US, and Chinese flag elements.

The slow death of a Labour buzzword

And what that says about Britain’s place in the world



Britain’s Supreme Court considers what a woman is

At last. Britons had been wondering what those 34m people who are not men might be

Can potholes fuel populism?

A new paper looks at one explanation for the rise of Reform UK

Are British voters as clueless as Labour’s intelligentsia thinks? 

How the idea of false consciousness conquered the governing party