Self-driving buses supported by 5G

Cities in the future are likely to benefit from digitisation and new technologies making them smarter and more sustainable and improving and simplifying life for citizens. Autonomous electric buses are likely to become an essential part of many smart city projects and can help meet the demand for a smart transport system. 5G Ride in Stockholm demonstrates the use-case for a smart bus transportation in a smart city project.

The project plan was laid down in 2019 by Kista Science City in collaboration with Ericsson and Keolis. The development and testing of a 5G assisted autonomous vehicle was undertaken in 2020, with Telia’s 5G network, Intel supporting AI on-board vehicles. A trial of 5G Ride took place in 2020, testing self-driving electric and 5G-enabled vehicles in traffic in Royal Djurgården, Stockholm. Testing and trial activities were undertaken in a fenced area using AI and remote driving with an on-board support driver for safety and security. In the two-week pilot program, AV provider T-Engineering connected minibuses to Telia’s 5G communication network, powered by Ericsson radio equipment (operating in the 700 MHz band).

The minibuses are smart driverless vehicles equipped with 5G connectivity and AI capabilities that can check their surroundings using an array of sensors including lidar, radar and optical sensors. The solution demonstrates how real-time data from within an autonomous vehicle can be transmitted to a centralised supervision or control tower and how, in return, the vehicle can respond to commands with the support of an AI system and high speed 5G network. Additional data collected by cameras located on the buses allows for counting passengers and tracking any items that passengers might leave behind on the bus. Any lost items are signalled to passengers using outboard microphones. The system also detects any abnormal passenger behaviour and informs the supervision tower if it detects that somebody might potentially be unwell. The operator in the supervision tower can then take immediate action by calling a doctor or an ambulance.

Initially, 5G Ride has been tested carrying passengers to two popular attractions (the Biological Museum and Rosendal Castle) in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of a two-week pilot project. The aim is to pave the way towards making 5G-enabled electric driverless public transport services a reality as a smart, efficient and sustainable transport solution.

Over the second phase, in 2022, the pilot focused on enhancing situational awareness for buses by deploying sensors in infrastructure such as traffic lights and other street furniture. The additional sensors help the 5G Ride system to better analyse the environment, traffic situation and other road users. In particular, sensors at road junctions and intersections can help on-board systems to ‘see’ oncoming vehicles around corners by using data collected from available vantage points. An alternative approach to reducing similar risks would be to replace an intersection with a roundabout which is a far more costly alternative.

In all cases, vehicles are programmed to stop in situations that cannot be safely handled by either on-board systems or remote staff in the control tower.

Additionally, the more fluid traffic flows that can be achieved with optimised autonomous vehicles result in reduced tire wear, reduced wear on the road infrastructure and extended maintenance intervals for the buses. Energy consumption can be reduced, traffic can become safer and the experience of using public transport can be more pleasant.

“To solve our problems with congestion, air quality and climate emissions in Stockholm, we need many different transport solutions. We are positive to these types of pilot projects because we believe that the vehicle of the future is autonomous, electric and easy to share, and this autonomous electric bus is a perfect example of that.” said Daniel Helldén, Vice Mayor of Traffic in Stockholm

Vehicle routing can also be optimised with the introduction of flexible bus schedules that can be altered depending on passenger demand, including the potential to divert more bus capacity to where it is needed. This can be particularly beneficial in rural areas and can enable public transport systems to extend into locations that were previously economically unviable.