Central Romania city to test driverless bus

An autonomous self-driving shuttle bus will be tested in Brașov, a city in central Romania, as part of a European project supported by Siemens, Brașov City Hall announced.

The trial is part of the “Smart urban mobility involving autonomous vehicles” project, which applied for EU funding.

Ten cities are involved in the project: Barcelona (Spain), Brașov, Braunschweig (Germany), Budapest, Debrecen (Hungary), Helmond (Netherlands), Pavia (Italy), Sant Cugat del Valles (Spain), Saue Vallavalitsus (Estonia) and Sfântu Gheorghe (Romania).

The testing will take place in three of the ten cities, one of them being Brașov, the City Hall said.

The project is meant to help cities introduce intelligent urban mobility policies and increase the use of alternative, ecological transport means.

The vehicle uses technologies such as Lidar sensors (used for measuring distances after illuminating the target with laser light), video cameras, real-time kinematic GPS, IMU (inertial measurement unit systems), and odometry.

The project brings together partners in the public and private sectors, academia, and the local authorities. In Romania, RATBV, the public transport operator of Brașov, Transilvania University, and the transport operator of Sfântu Gheorghe, invited by Brașov, are involved in the project.

(Photo: Brasovicity.ro)