The road less travelled is driverless

The concept of driverless cars has been buzzing around for quite a while and with testing taking place in many different countries, including Malta, it is now clear that autonomous motors are in our close future.  

Imagine drivers relaxing in their vehicles whilst their cars automatically navigate their way through rush hour traffic without any human intervention. Less road rage and safer roads are the first two benefits that come to mind, but what if the idea of driverless cars was extended to autonomous buses? What potential would this technology hold in fighting the ghastly gridlock itself? Apart from not needing a driver, how would autonomous buses benefit the public on a larger scale? 

Thanks to The Internet of Things (IoT) and connectivity partners melita.io, driverless buses would operate through a highly connected network system. For starters, this would be able to assess traffic conditions and ridership across the whole fleet, collecting and transmitting real-time data to enable immediate adaption and adjustment in order to maintain timing schedules. 

Besides being more reliable, self-drive buses are also likely to be more efficient. In the case of an out-of-the-ordinary rush or heavier traffic than usual, an IoT-connected fleet would automatically deploy extra buses to avoid bottlenecks and queues. In addition, all the transportation data collected in real-time by smart devices would provide priceless and endless learning opportunities for the system as well as those managing it. This would only make driverless buses even smarter as time goes by.

The IoT smart sensors that make driverless buses a true possibility will also make buses much safer than human-driven ones. Highly accurate and sensitive IoT sensors detect moving objects, pedestrians, other vehicles and anything in the proximity of a bus much sooner and quicker than any human can. Let’s face it, for smart devices with IoT connectivity, there’s no such thing as a blind spot or human error.

Possibly one of the more attractive benefits of autonomous buses is that they are extremely beneficial for the planet. As opposed to self-driving single-occupancy vehicles, which make up the largest percentage of all vehicles on our streets, autonomous buses reduce congestion in at least two different ways – firstly by transporting groups of people at once as opposed to individuals one by one, and secondly, by being able to communicate with connected traffic lights long before they get to them, self-driving buses slowly and gradually adjust their speed thus optimising fuel consumption which benefits the environment by reducing CO2 emissions.

The impact of self-driven buses that are efficiently connected through an IoT connectivity provider such as melita.io offer benefits in more ways than we can ever imagine.

Get in touch with melita.io today to find out how our IoT solutions can help your business. We’ll also throw in a free M2M trial plan containing 10 SIM cards with 100 MB and 100 SMS shared for 90 days to test our services.

Want to become a partner? Let’s talk, contact us here

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