The City of Edinburgh is to launch a full-sized driverless bus service this spring. Funded by UK Government and industry, the driverless bus will run along a 14 mile (22.5 km) route.

The new bus was developed by a consortium including Fusion Processing Ltd, Stagecoach, Alexander Dennis, Edinburgh Napier University, and the University of West of England.

The new bus service is believed to be the world’s most complex full-sized automated bus service to date, as it will run through mixed traffic in a busy, historic city, taking one of the busiest routes in Scotland out of the city centre to Queensferry and on into Fife, before ending at Dunfermline city centre.

The project was awarded a share of £81 million in joint UK government and industry support for self-driving transport technology.

Coach company Stagecoach will run the new service. The buses will travel the route in mixed traffic at speeds up to 50 mph (80 kpmh). The route includes the Forth Road Bridge, one of the world’s longest bridges at 1.5 miles (2.5 km), crossing the Firth of Forth and taking the bus into Fife.

The new bus service will operate a frequent timetable with the capacity for around 10,000 journeys per week.

The buses will have two members of staff on board as backup. Test track-based demonstrations are also planned with no safety driver in order to assess passenger reactions.

A pilot trial has been operating since Spring 2022. A group of 22 passengers was transported successfully in January.

UK Business Secretary Grant Shapps said: “In just a few years’ time, the business of self-driving vehicles could add tens of billions to our economy and create tens of thousands of jobs across the UK. This is a massive opportunity to drive forward our priority to grow the economy, which we are determined to seize. The support we are providing today will help our transport and technology pioneers steal a march on the global competition, by turning their bright ideas into market-ready products sooner than anyone else.”