Alexander Dennis, a subsidiary of NFI Group Inc. and one of the world‘s leading independent bus manufacturers, today announced that it has concluded track testing of an Enviro200AV autonomous bus as part of the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport 2023 .
Alexander Dennis and his technology partner Fusion Processing Ltd. are one of six global automotive consortia selected by the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) for the competition, which this year focuses on buses. The competition has been organized in conjunction with the Dubai World Congress for Self-Driving Transport to be held in September, where the winner will be announced.
The vehicle submitted to the challenge by Alexander Dennis and Fusion Processing is an Enviro200AV autonomous single-decker bus. It is one of five vehicles built for the CAVForth project, which earlier this year launched its 14-mile route across the Forth Road Bridge, near Edinburgh, as the world‘s most complex and ambitious autonomous bus service.
In Dubai, the bus was put through its paces on a test track that reproduces a near-real experience of the city’s traffic conditions. During testing, the vehicle completed 21 scenarios ranging from safely autonomous obstacle avoidance to adverse weather conditions such as sandstorms.
In addition to technology performance, finalists are judged on the value proposition their solution offers to RTA for potential deployment in Dubai, as part of its strategy to make 25% of all transport journeys intelligent and driverless by 2030.