Self-Driving bus in Sweden crashes with tram on first day of passenger service

Self-Driving bus in Sweden crashes with tram on first day of passenger service(firstpost.com)

17 points by Markoff 5 hours ago | 9 comments

sparky_z 3 hours ago |

Are they not going to tell us which company's self-driving tech was installed on the bus? That seems like very relevant info.

parker-3461 3 hours ago | |

> May 25 (Reuters) - A self-driving bus made by Turkey's Karsan (KARSN.IS), opens new tab was struck from behind by a tram in Gothenburg, Sweden, on Monday, just an hour after it began carrying paying passengers, the public transport organiser said.

https://www.reuters.com/world/turkeys-karsan-self-driving-bu...

I believe it is this one, I was able to find this via google search.

dyauspitr 3 hours ago | |

It was ADASTEC’s autonomous-driving tech- specifically its flowride.ai SAE Level-4 automated driving software platform. It’s a Turkish company.

Markoff 2 hours ago | |

the bus model is Karsan e-ATAK, but not sure who provides self-driving tech for them, if it's their own in-house tech or third party

https://www.karsan.com/en

"The Karsan Autonomous e-ATAK is automated by ADASTEC’s SAE Level-4 automated driving software platform, flowride.ai, which combines perception, localization, and planning modules to make real-time decisions with high reliability. A comprehensive sensor suite, including LiDAR, radar, RGB cameras, and GNSS, continuously captures and fuses environmental and infrastructure data to enable accurate navigation in dynamic urban conditions. The system’s predictive algorithms anticipate the behavior of pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles, while the planning module generates safe, smooth trajectories for the vehicle, ensuring passenger comfort and operational safety.

The vehicle is equipped with V2X communication capabilities for potential future integration with city infrastructure, enhancing situational awareness and supporting smart city initiatives. Teleoperation support is available through a dedicated control center operated by Vy Buss, allowing authorized operators to remotely intervene in rare cases such as unexpected obstacles or deviations from the planned route. This additional layer of oversight reinforces operational reliability and passenger safety."

https://www.adastec.com/automated-bus/gothenburg-automated-b...

stubish 2 hours ago |

Rather disingenuous to say the bus crashed with a tram when it was crashed into by a tram. There might be a genuine concern here about buses and trams sharing dedicated paths or the lack of collision detection and automatic breaking on the trams, but nope, lets insinuate self driving was the problem.

maltelau 2 hours ago | |

Rather disingenuous to call slamming on the brakes "it was crashed into". Rule #1 of the road is to be predictable -- if a human slammed on their brakes and caused a crash on their first day of driving, they shouldn't be driving either.

From the article:

> The self-driving bus, with passengers onboard in Gothenburg, braked suddenly and was hit from behind by a tram.

menaerus 1 hour ago | | |

So, by definition, driver of a tram is guilty for the accident the same way the driver would be if he had run into another vehicle. Tram hit the bus from behind.

Markoff 3 hours ago |

Seems there are not really more information about what caused the accident and why the tram crashed into the bus from behind, but it happened on the straight road reserved only for trams and buses so there is no reason why tram should crash there into bus unless it suddenly stopped. Also after the crash the bus continued driving for few meters instead of stopping immediately. I've found only video after crash in this article[1]:

"The bus reportedly had only one regular passenger, but several Västtrafik employees were on board for the inaugural trip. It will now be driven back to the depot to be inspected and possibly repaired."

[1] https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vast/sjalvkorande-buss-i-k...

I checked also paywalled Swedish newspaper Goteborg Posten (thanks to my library in PressReader), but nothing else really, just some opinion of tram union guy since tram hit the bus:

"The question is whether, for example, they’ve entered the correct right-of-way rules for trams? All vehicles are required to yield to trams, with a few exceptions, and that could be what’s “triggering” the system, he says.

– We can’t change our rules just because a vehicle like that is coming. It’s the other vehicles—the buses—that have to adapt and take into account that trams don’t follow the same rules as they do,” Sandholm continues.

He can’t say for certain how the accident happened, but he finds it remarkable that it occurred on Aschebergsgatan, a straight stretch of road with lanes reserved exclusively for buses and trams.

“I think that suggests no proper risk analysis was conducted regarding what happens when, for example, a self-driving bus suddenly stops on a tram route. And such a risk analysis must, of course, be conducted in collaboration with the tram drivers who operate on that route,” he says.

“Yes, it’s clear that this is something that needs to be addressed immediately, so that’s good. But sending a vehicle out into traffic that could come to a sudden stop on a route where no other traffic is supposed to be moving... Well, this shouldn’t have happened,” says Magnus Sandholm."