Driverless bus granted city certificate
The AI Panda Bus, a driverless bus developed by DeepBlue Technology attracting a lot of attention at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference for its cute appearance, has received Shanghai's first certificate for driverless passenger moving vehicles.
With the certificate, Panda Bus is allowed to be tested on 12 designated roads in Jiading District and the Lingang New Area. The 12 roads, which cover a total of 37.2 kilometers, are open to all traffic.
Unlike driverless cars, the panda bus is a large vehicle, its size making it more difficult for its AI system to learn spatial recognition and control.
DeepBlue said that according to the regulations on driverless vehicles, they must set up road signs to warn other cars about the Panda Bus. A safety inspector will sit behind the steering wheel of the bus so he can switch to manual mode if emergencies occur.
To get the certificate, the AI Panda Bus had gone through 1,000 closed testings which covered over 80,000 kilometers. There were no collisions during the tests and the safety inspector only had to take manual control on three occasions.
