Self-driving buses to arrive in France in next six months

The buses will have three key aims, he said:

• To tackle the skills shortage, as “fewer and fewer people are choosing to become bus drivers”
• To enable a more extensive, flexible service in “sparsely populated suburban areas”
• To achieve economies of scale, as “a single supervisor will coordinate several shuttles”.

The site has been designed to be as close to a normal road as possible, to test the buses in “real-world traffic conditions”, said Mr Flon. The circuit at the former airbase includes traffic lights, stop signs, junctions, roundabouts, and speed bumps.

Hannah Thompson