Bad day for drivers! These poor fellows may be out of job soon in the United States and China.
While Alphabet, Tesla and BMW are racing to introduce a reliable driverless car, China goes literally bigger by letting loose a driverless bus.
Globally trusted by having exported vehicles to more than 120 countries, bus maker Yutong conducted a test drive on its new, hi-tech and eco-friendly bus.
In a demo video, the Yutong bus smoothly makes its way amidst other vehicles on the wide roads of China. The steering wheel rotates by itself while the driver supervises the trip without moving a finger.
Seated at the back is a full load of passengers, calm in their seats and carefully assessing the journey.
The bus' sensors are conscious of pedestrian lanes and traffic lines, perhaps more than some actual drivers.
"The vehicle's driving system is controlled by its master controller, which sends out orders for acceleration, deceleration, and stop before the vehicle is passing a traffic light," wrote Yutong on its website.
Following the success of the world's first driverless bus, other countries are eager to explore the technology.
CityMobile2, a research facility in Belguim, ran tests for a self-driving electric bus, which sounds even better. Unfortunately, the other bus, equipped with two cameras, one set of millimeter wave radar, four laser radars and an integrated navigation system, was not as successful as the Chinese bus.
While many countries and companies are busy developing driverless cars, little research has been done on the bigger picture of how automated public transit can help solve the world's greatest time-waster: traffic.
With the U.S. losing $2.8 trillion to traffic, and other highly urbanized countries facing the same dilemma, automated public transit is a long-awaited necessity.
The advancement of GPS, smart technology and intuitive technology makes its highly possible and even convenient for experts to create a perfect, hi-tech transit ecosystem.
With the right planning, cars, traffic lights and road CCTVs can be manipulated in a way that everything will move in sync with the other. After all, machines do follow instructions very well.
This innovation may come to life sooner than we can imagine, if the world decides to collaborate rather than compete in pursuing the initiative.
