A self-driving bus has been involved in a crash with a tram on its first day carrying passengers in the Swedish city of Gothenburg, local public transport company Västtrafik has said.
The vehicle has been taken out of service for inspection, Västtrafik spokesman Patrik Chi told AFP.
“The self-driving bus with people onboard in Gothenburg braked and was hit from behind by a tram. There are no casualties or personal damages,” Chi said.
The autonomous bus had been circulating in central Gothenburg since the end of March, but the incident happened on the first day it was carrying passengers, according to Västtrafik. A driver was on board the vehicle to take control if necessary.
The service, marketed as Gårda autonom and operated as line 169, runs between Polhemsplatsen and Liseberg Station, serving seven stops along a 5km route in the Gårda district. The bus is 8m long and can accommodate 52 passengers, operating at the same speed as other traffic.
The pilot is being run by Västtrafik in cooperation with bus operator Vy Buss and the City of Gothenburg, with funding from the Västra Götaland region. Software is provided by Turkish-American firm ADASTEC, with vehicles supplied by Karsan.
Sweden’s Transportstyrelsen transport agency had given the green light for the bus to carry passengers as part of a trial that is due to last until July 31, 2027. Västtrafik has said it hopes self-driving buses could in the long term complement regular public transport, help to lower costs, improve services and ease a driver shortage facing Swedish operators.
Self-driving buses and shuttles elsewhere in Europe operate under local authorisations, granted city by city and route by route, often on private roads or in low-speed environments.
The European Union has not yet granted Europe-wide approvals for the commercial deployment of self-driving public transport or robotaxis. Member states retain considerable leeway when it comes to permitting autonomous vehicles on their own roads, though the European Commission has signalled an interest in setting common rules for the sector to avoid a patchwork of national regimes.
The Gothenburg crash comes amid growing scrutiny of autonomous vehicles across the EU, with regulators weighing safety, liability and data-protection issues raised by the technology. The European Parliament has also previously called for clearer rules on driverless vehicles before they are rolled out at scale.
Västtrafik has not said when the bus might return to service. Trams in Gothenburg, which form one of the largest networks in northern Europe, continued to run normally after the incident.
