Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Driverless buses set to travel to and from Fife via the Forth Road Bridge

Michael Matheson on board the prototype bus.
Michael Matheson on board the prototype bus.

Scotland has been given a first glimpse of the driverless technology to be trialled on buses in Fife next year.

Europe’s first full-sized self-driving bus was unveiled at a major summit in Glasgow on Wednesday, before the “globally significant” year-long pilot using vehicles travelling across the Forth Road Bridge.

The demonstration at the Connected and Autonomous Vehicles Summit (CAV Scotland) involved an autonomous bus already trialled by Stagecoach in Manchester.

The buses for the 14-mile journey between Ferrytoll park and ride in Inverkeithing and the Edinburgh Park train and tram interchange are still in development.

Operated by Stagecoach East Scotland, the five single-decker vehicles will each be capable of carrying up to 42 people and are expected to transport around 10,000 passengers a week over the road bridge.

Although they will be equipped with autonomous technology, including radar and cameras, a driver will be on board during any journey, in line with UK regulations. The trial was announced a year ago.

Transport Secretary Michael Matheson was at the Glasgow summit, where he hailed the project as ground-breaking.

“I was particularly pleased to experience the demo of the prototype automated bus system as it’s the type of innovation that shows Scotland is very much open for business when it comes to trialling these types of vehicles,” he said.

“Our trunk road network can provide a wide range of environments as a diverse testing ground and the ground-breaking and globally significant Project CAVForth will really help Scotland establish its credentials on the world stage.”

Stagecoach Group chief executive Martin Griffiths said the company was pleased to be leading the way in Scotland’s first autonomous bus trial.

“Our industry, customers and employees can benefit hugely from autonomous technology as it can make services safer, more efficient and help to deliver better journeys,” he said.

The project also involves bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis, technology company Fusion Processing Ltd, Bristol Robotics Laboratory and Napier University, as well as Transport Scotland.

Jim Hutchinson, Fusion Processing chief executive, said CAVForth was the most advanced autonomous bus project anywhere.

“As well as providing autonomous systems, Fusion Procssing will provide spin-off projects from the technology that can help today’s manual driven buses, such as tech that can recognise pedestrians and cyclists and warn the driver, automated emergency braking and replacement of external mirrors with advanced vision systems,” he said.