NI group wins grant to develop self-driving buses

Ballymena-based Wrightbus and Queen's University are part of a consortium which has won government funding to help develop self-driving buses.

It is part of a government scheme which has awarded grants of up to £250,000 to self-driving feasibility studies.

Other projects include studies into autonomous freight vehicles and driverless shuttle operations across NHS sites.

Limited self-driving bus experiments have already been carried out in several cities around the UK.

That included the Harlander, a self-driving minibus which operated on a short route in Belfast's Titanic Quarter.

The Wrightbus feasibility study is not aimed at getting a fully self-driving vehicle on the road immediately.

Instead it will take a "phased, evidence-driven approach to test what works" and use that to make it safer and easier to introduce self-driving passenger services in the future.

Dr Andy Harris, head of research and data analytics at Wrightbus, said it was about developing a "credible, commercial business case for the future of autonomous public transport".

A number of companies are aiming to have self-driving taxis on UK roads by the end of this year.

Waymo, a US firm, said it hopes to be operating a robotaxi service in London by September.

The firm, which is owned by Google-parent Alphabet, already has vehicles mapping the city's streets with a safety driver at the wheel.