The CAVForth autonomous bus project in Scotland is to grow via a £10.4m second phase, CAVForth2. It will see the current route between Edinburgh Park transport interchange and Ferrytoll park-and-ride site in Fife extended to Dunfermline, a total distance of nearly 20 miles.
Such an extension will add “more complex autonomous driving scenarios.” Capacity to deal with that challenge will come from Fusion Processing and an upgraded version of its CAVStar automated drive system that delivers SAE International Level 4 autonomous driving capability.
Fusion Processing to outfit Enviro100AEV for CAVForth2
An automated battery-electric Alexander Dennis Enviro100EV – called the Enviro100AEV by the manufacturer – will be created via fitment of the Fusion Processing system. The bus will be operated by Stagecoach East Scotland alongside fife existing autonomous Enviro200AV diesel buses from the original CAVForth stage. Those vehicles recently carried their first passengers.
Fusion says that traffic light phasing will allow the Enviro100AEV to travel non-stop from one green light to the next. That approach will enhance efficiency and passenger comfort and reduce particulate emissions from brakes and tyres, the supplier adds.
Fusion is one of the existing CAVForth partners, all of which remain involved in the expanded project.
It says that CAVStar includes redundancy on all safety critical systems, with additional redundancy included in braking and steering equipment.
A driver is thus not required, but as with the original CAVForth work, CAVForth2 will have one present at all times.
“We have every confidence that the next generation of our CAVStar automated drive system, which combines a range of radar, LiDAR and optical sensors with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence processing units, will be up to the task,” says Fusion Processing CEO Jim Hutchinson.
Project growth allows ‘further autonomous bus development in UK’
Alexander Dennis believes that the expanded project will allow it to “further develop autonomous bus technology here in the UK,” according to Head of Concepts and Advanced Engineering Jamie Wilson.
“This ensure that the British bus industry remains at the forefront of global trends and helps to secure jobs in the automotive industry. Our new Enviro100AEV will demonstrate another use case for our extremely versatile next-generation electric bus as Alexander Dennis continues to lead the transition to zero-emission mobility.”
Separately, Stagecoach is also a partner in autonomous projects in Cambridge and Sunderland. The Project Cambridge Connector, led by Greater Cambridge Partnership, will see up to 13 on-demand self-driving vehicles integrate with existing transport services at Cambridge University’s West Cambridge Campus and the Cambridge Biomedical Campus.
In North East England, the Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttle is led by City of Sunderland Council. It will research, build, trial and evaluate the deployment of a highly automated “passenger mobility service” to increase capacity between the city’s transport interchange and the University of Sunderland City Campus and Royal Sunderland Hospital.
The CAVForth2 expansion and the Cambridge and Sunderland projects are funded from an £81 million pot drawn from government and industry.
