Driving without Driver in Public Transportation

In the emerging model of public transportation with fully automated mini-busses, the suppression of the driver and the introduction of external intervention teams, raised questions on by whom and how all the formal and informal services of the driver can be still offered, preserving the current high level quality of service. In this paper, we present our experience from the AVENUE project in the deployment of IT based services targeting in offering the driver assistance services in a driverless public transportation mini-bus, discussing the related issues, in their implementation. A novel artificial intelligence (AI) supported framework that enables wide adoption of these services is also presented envisioning significant enhancement of safety and security levels in autonomous public transportation as well as passengers trust. The AVENUE ecosystem and the associated services are expected to provide the pillars for wide adoption and passengers’ engagement of future fully automated public transportation mobility.