Trikala: First City In The World To Test Driverless Buses

Trikala, in Central Greece, is apparently going to become the first city in the world to operate driverless buses in an urban environment. According to reports, the project is a pilot scheme that city authorities hope is going to be up and running by September 2015.

The selection of the city to host the pilot scheme was announced in a press conference on Friday by the head of the municipality company e-Trikala SA, that will run the pilot project, Christoforos Rombos.

The technical details were then outlined by Giannis Karaseitanidis of the University Research Institute for Communication and IT Systems, who stated that the aim of the project was to have six driverless vehicles circulating in the city centre by September 1st.

According to a state news agency dispatch, the Trikala project forms part of the broader European project CityMobil2, which is setting up a pilot platform for automated road transport systems implemented in several urban environments across Europe. It will be the largest and most complex pilot throughout Europe and will run on a trial basis from September 2015 until February 2016.

Among others, the Trikala system will be the only one to use "on demand" vehicle movement on a trial basis.