Autonomous driving live
“Krone” was allowed to test: driving through the city without a driver
It looks spooky, sounds spooky and feels spooky: but then comes the aha effect! The "Kärntner Krone" was the very first media outlet to test the new, fully autonomous bus system in Klagenfurt, encountering pedestrians, cyclists, cars and diesel buses. And a traffic circle...
Imagine this: You're standing at a bus stop. And then the bus arrives; a small bus that looks the same at the back and front and glides along slowly but smoothly like a model learner driver. Behind the windshield: nothing and nobody; no driver, no steering wheel.
And then the bus stops; you press the green button, the doors open, you can get in, sit down. And off you go. The brakes are released and the autonomously driving bus takes off; unerringly, at a clean distance from the edge of the road, guided by GPS systems and an army of camera eyes and sensors. Nothing should escape its notice.
A bus is already approaching; a normal, huge behemoth with a driver. And it drives a little far into the middle of the road. What does our automatic bus do? It warns the other one with a screen, rings a discreet bell, slows down for safety's sake and only starts up again after the encounter. And then - just like we all learned in driving school - it turns off carefully.
Self-driving bus vs. traffic circle
A little later, the first challenge: a car at the side of the road is not parked properly: our bus brakes, "looks", rings the bell and sneaks past. Then it's off into the flow of traffic; carefully, slowly, it feels safe. And the next test: a traffic circle, the one in front of Klagenfurt University, which is not a real traffic circle, but just painted on the road. The bus does everything right, turns in cleanly, flashes, turns out cleanly - all respect. Now even Krone intern Verena calms down and relaxes. The fully automatic thing really can drive.
But the next test is approaching: a beer truck is in the way. Delivering beer is important, but it's not really programmable. Our bus could also solve this problem, but is not (yet) allowed to do so by law, because autonomous vehicles are not allowed to swerve into the opposite lane. So this is one of those cases where the "escort driver" present during the test phase still has to intervene.
Wolfgang steers the bus around the beer trolley using a joystick - and on it goes; until the next crosswalk, which a woman is about to cross; and stops, startled, because there is no driver on the bus coming along. But the bus has already seen her, brakes and stops. Just like you learned in driving school...
Speaking of driving school: just like there, the automatic system also knows all other priority rules; for example, it always leaves cycle paths clear, pays attention if a car pulls in too closely after overtaking, "thinks" whether the speed of other road users and their direction of travel allow for safe coexistence and, of course, remains well-behaved and faithful to its specified route.
In the trial phase, this now leads from the technology paradise Lakeside Park via the university to Klagenfurt-West station and back again. "The project is great, we've already come a long way and are constantly learning," says Walter Prutej from the company SURAAA (Smart Urban Region Austria Alps Adriatic) enthusiastically and excitedly. After all, test drives like this don't take place everywhere in the world; in California, in China, but in Europe basically only here.
Going to work with the computer
From Monday, July 15, anyone who is interested in technology can try out the mobility of the future. For maximum safety, there will still be "safety drivers" on board in this first phase to intervene in the event of any irregularities. From 2026/2027, Walter Prutej expects that such buses could gradually be used in public transport; from around 2030, they will be used even more.
Right up to futuristic call systems, where you can simply order your self-driving cab home and have your computer drive you to work and the shops. Studies have shown that we could save 300 cars per 1000 inhabitants in Carinthia alone. Today we have 700 per 1000 inhabitants! This is because most journeys are only short errands, which is exactly what the small, self-driving bus can do so well.
Speaking of autonomous: another plus is that you don't need a driver as a person (in the final stage, there will only be one operator in a control center monitoring around 20 buses via monitors). There is already a shortage of bus drivers throughout Europe. And because the average age is 55, this shortage will become even more glaring in the future.
So: if you want to experience the future, including a bit of adventure and a little touch of spooky - head to Lakeside Park from July 15!
This article has been automatically translated,
read the original article here.
Kommentare
Willkommen in unserer Community! Eingehende Beiträge werden geprüft und anschließend veröffentlicht. Bitte achten Sie auf Einhaltung unserer Netiquette und AGB. Für ausführliche Diskussionen steht Ihnen ebenso das krone.at-Forum zur Verfügung. Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.
User-Beiträge geben nicht notwendigerweise die Meinung des Betreibers/der Redaktion bzw. von Krone Multimedia (KMM) wieder. In diesem Sinne distanziert sich die Redaktion/der Betreiber von den Inhalten in diesem Diskussionsforum. KMM behält sich insbesondere vor, gegen geltendes Recht verstoßende, den guten Sitten oder der Netiquette widersprechende bzw. dem Ansehen von KMM zuwiderlaufende Beiträge zu löschen, diesbezüglichen Schadenersatz gegenüber dem betreffenden User geltend zu machen, die Nutzer-Daten zu Zwecken der Rechtsverfolgung zu verwenden und strafrechtlich relevante Beiträge zur Anzeige zu bringen (siehe auch AGB). Hier können Sie das Community-Team via unserer Melde- und Abhilfestelle kontaktieren.