Swiss town giving driverless buses a two-year test run

Ahh, Switzerland in the spring! The snow is melting. The birds are chirping. The edelweiss are blooming. And of course, the buses are driving themselves. Two driverless test buses will begin ferrying passengers about in Sion this coming spring, part of an ambitious rethinking of the country's public transportation system.

The pair of yellow PostBus vehicles will carry up to nine passengers at a time through the touristy parts of Sion's old town. If all goes according to plan, the test buses will run for a two-year research project before potentially expanding in a major way. The test run is the first commercial contract for fledgling company BestMile. Co-founder Anne Koymans explains that a rising tide lifts all boats:

“We have already participated in two big European projects but this is the first time a customer will use our platform. There is a lot of interest for driverless mobility solutions, partly thanks to Google. Cities are interested but also public transport operators and the interest is increasing.”

The buses themselves are simultaneously futuristic and retro. Evocative of both a taxi cab and, um, a fishbowl, the design of the test buses fits the needs of a bustling tourism district perfectly, allowing both the passengers onboard and the bus itself to see.

Google, Tesla, Uber and Apple may all be racing toward unveiling their of self-driving cars, and Mercedes-Benz is trying to corner the luxury driverless limousine market, but congrats to BestMile for their foray into the autonomous bus market.