Driverless bus trial in Netherlands

An electric, driverless shuttle bus has taken to Dutch public roads on Thursday, rolling six passengers along a 200m stretch of road in the first trial of its kind worldwide. — in the guardian

And this is not really much, but it is a start, although I think that having self-driving mass transit buses is going to take longer to be accepted by users than private self-driving cars. The main reason being that in the former responsibility for what happens is more diffuse. Who can take over in the case of a problem? In a self-driving car the owner ends up being accountable for what happens.

And there’s also the devil aspect of having mass transit systems being self-driven: dismissing the driver will send thousand of professional drivers to unemployment, while in the private car realm you wont see that impact.

Your Grandfather’s Oldsmobile—NOT! self-driving cars around the corner

Your Grandfather’s Oldsmobile—NOT! – BLOG@UBIQUITY.

The self-driving car is coming to our streets. Might not be as soon as some predicted, but it will come in incremental steps. Technology has this feature: You dream about radical changes and then they appear slowly, one step at the time, and when you look back you realise that reality is bigger than your original dream. So let’s keep dreaming about self-driving cars, planes, bicycles or balloons. Someone will implement all the good things to get there and beyond.