Self Driving buses join the traffic Helsinki’s roads.

Two small self driving buses have started to roll onto the public roads of Helsinki , Finland. The EasyMile EZ10 buses which are made in France are the first of its kind to be tested alongside traffic and commuters. The French car maker Ligier and Indian robotics outfit Robosoft has worked in partnership to develop the EasyMile EZ10. The pairs aren’t newcomers to the self driving vehicles and have supplied robots shuttles to various European parks.

These Robo-buses which can carry up-to 9 people, still have a human driver on board just in case if anything goes wrong. These pair of self drive busses have been taken on the roads of helsinki this week as a part of the trial which will continue until mid-September. This month long trial is a follows a successful experiment n a neighbouring town Vantaa which is limited to pedestrian traffic reported by YLE () a local news service.

“This is actually a really big deal right now,” the project’s leader, Harri Santamala, told Finnish news outlet Uutiset. It is also reported that the trial is an effort towards the improvement of the urban mobility challenges and yet wont have much impact on congestion as there are only two buses which are on trial.

These self-drying buses are not speed demons though as they have a maximum speed of 40 kilometres per hour but will only be tested at a speed of 11 kilometres per hour which is approximately 7 miles per hour. These self –drive Ez10 buses are equipped with four laser sensors which detect any obstacles around 360 degrees.

An EZ10 bus is not a Google car which have in fact been involved in a number of accidents reported by an associated press. read more about accident risks with self driving cars.

After the successful completion of the trial in Helsinki these buses are expected to undergo further trials in the neighbouring towns Espoo and Tampere. The idea of these buses are not to replace but supplement human drivers as an extension to Finland’s public transport system. “For example the goal could be to use them as a feeder service for high-volume bus or metro traffic…. In other words the mini-bus would know when the connecting service is coming and it would get you there on time.” Says project leader Harri Santamala of the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.