The aim of the Autobus project is to gain a better understanding of how ordinary road users (drivers, cyclists and pedestrians) react to and interact with self-driving buses. To this goal, the project makes use of several field tests in Norway.Based on behavioural models from the social sciences we will develop hypotheses about how ordinary road users will respond and interact with self-drivig busses and how behaviours and interactions might change over time. By use of video analyses we will document the actual behaviours and interactions in the streets at different phases after introducing self-driving busses. Furthermore, we will conduct surveys to road users and passengers to map their views on trust, expectations and attractiveness of self-driving busses.Vias institute is one of the lead research partners in the project, and will mostly contribute to the analyses of video recordings.
The study was commissioned by the Norwegian Research Council. Our main research partners in the project are the institute of Transport Economics TØI (coordinator, NO), TUDelft (NL), Lund University (SE), University College of Southeast Norway (NO) and Applied Autonomy (NO). Other Norwegian partners and financial contributors are the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, RUTER AS Public Transport Authority in Oslo and Akershus, Buskerud County and KOLUMBUS Public Transport Authority in Rogaland.