Driverless bus hits streets of Malaga

MÁLAGA, (Spain): A new driverless electric bus has begun operating in the southern Spanish city of Malaga, in a project presented as a first in Europe.

The bus, which began running on Saturday, is equipped with sensors and cameras and links Malaga’s port to the city centre on an eight-kilometre (five-mile) loop it does six times a day.

“The bus knows at all times where it is and what is around it,” said Rafael Durban Carmona, who heads the southern division of Spanish transport company Avanza that leads the public-private consortium behind the project. It can “interact with traffic lights,” which are also equipped with sensors that alert the bus when they turn red, he told AFP. The bus uses artificial intelligence to improve its “decisions” based on data recorded along the route.