At auto industry events like the Geneva Motor Show, the question looms of when cars will be able to drive themselves. But first the technology has to be tested. Here’s where such tests and research are happening around the world.
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A Swiss-American journalist mainly covering education, migration and youth issues - plus the occasional story on cheese, given her roots in Switzerland and Wisconsin. She also produces podcasts and works on the social media team.
Major auto industry players like Volkwagen, Ford and Audi have been conducting autonomous vehicle tests for years, and several top executives have promised fully self-driving cars by 2020. Recently, Tesla’s Elon Musk made headlines by saying the company would debut a fully autonomous car in the next two years.
Switzerland has played host to several autonomous vehicle tests, with a city bus in Sion and a car in Zurich. Driverless vehicle tests in Europe tend to focus on public transport, while those in countries like the United States with large driving distances more often involve private cars.
But the tests haven’t gone off without incident: recently, one of Google’s autonomous cars was at fault in a minor accident with a city bus.
The Geneva Auto Show, underway through March 13, has debuted several cars with self-driving elements, such as models where the car can drive itself – still with a person behind the wheel – on motorways. And the Italian company Ed Design unveiled a prototype of a fully autonomous race car in Geneva which they hope will take part in a major race by 2025.
An upcoming story on swissinfo.ch will explore how Swiss startups are getting in on the early days of the driverless car market.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.
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Developing driverless buses
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Two autonomous buses are set to do the rounds, firstly without passengers in a closed off area. Next spring, passengers will also be able to hop onboard. For a two-year trial period, the buses carrying up to nine passengers each will cover tourist routes in Sion’s Old Town. The shuttle system is the brainchild of…
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And driverless vehicles will not be a feature at the Geneva Motor Show opening on Thursday. “We don’t feel the trend right now,” motor show spokeswoman Sylvie Blattner told swissinfo.ch. “The focus this year is much more on low consumption and low-emission vehicles.” But when? Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin stuck his neck out last year…
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“Move along inside, there’s room for up to nine people,” says Pascal Lecuyot, our guide in one of two distinctive bright-yellow driverless buses. The doors close with a swish. The electric-powered vehicle beeps twice and we’re off – aided by computer technology but without a driver, steering wheel or pedals. “Hold on tight, as I’m…
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On Tuesday the Federal Roads Office announced that the Swiss transport ministry had granted an exemption permit to Swisscom to test one car in Zurich. The exemption permit, which is valid until the end of the year, is necessary because in all other cases vehicles must be driven with two hands on the steering wheel,…
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here. Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.