According to Finnish news outlet YLE, these EyeMile minibuses have actually been in testing for a while now, but this will be the first time that the buses will be integrated into the city and into roads with higher traffic.
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Finland has become a hotbed of automated technology development and testing because, unlike most of the rest of the world, Finnish law does not require vehicles on public roads to have a driver. But later this year, the buses are expected to undergo further trials in neighbouring Espoo and Tampere, 160km to the north of the capital. This has cut a lot of the red tape encountered by many other firms and research groups looking to test autonomous vehicles on public roads in the U.S. and Europe.
Built in France and called EasyMile, the 12-passenger buses were previously tested on closed roads in the nearby city of Vantaa.
“Their objective is to supplement but not to replace” human drivers, says project leader Harri Santamala of the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.
The SOHJOA project said that the “cost effective, energy efficient, small electric buses” were being trialled in the Hernesaari area of Helsinki in an effort to solve urban mobility challenges. A driver is stationed on board in case of an emergency. Their maximum speed is a more traffic-friendly 40km/h.
If all goes well, the vehicles will supplement existing mass transit networks. Similar buses are also being used in a park near Tokyo. “In other words the mini-bus would know when the connecting service is coming and it would get you there on time”, Santamala explained.
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The trials in Helsinki will last until mid-September, while other trials with the EasyMile bus have already taken place at a Japanese shopping centre and in Dubai.
