Lilee to power self-driving bus service in Taiwan

  • April 12, 2021
  • Steve Rogerson

California-based Lilee Systems has received a permit for self-driving bus commercial services on two designated bus lines in Tainan, Taiwan.

The self-driving fleet, subsidised by the Ministry of Transportation, will generate revenues for the city’s public transit systems by providing two regular bus services in the science park and between the high-speed railway station and the nearby university, exhibition centre and large outlet mall.

This milestone of the autonomous rapid transit (ART) system has been achieved through partnership with Kasion Green Energy, Taiwan’s sole distributor of BYD vehicles, and Tainan Bus, one of the largest bus operators servicing more than 23 million passengers a year.

Selected by the Tainan City government and Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation, Lilee Systems, Kasion Green Energy and Tainan Bus have signed a memorandum of cooperation in creating a smart transportation model that realises true driverless driving of urban buses. The commercial services will begin in September 2021 using the BYD K6 bus fleet.

“Launching the ART system with Lilee Systems is a key milestone of our smart transportation development,” said Ming-Te Wang, director of Tainan’s Bureau of Transportation. “We are excited to roll our self-driving buses to expand the city’s public transportation services and improve safety and efficiency.”

Lilee Systems specialises in transportation safety software and is a provider of autonomous driving technology that delivers AI-based object detection, precision positioning, HD-map and path planning. The self-driving system is monitored by a cloud-based operations control centre for an extra layer of safety.

“Autonomous driving reduces the operating cost of labour and fuel, the two biggest expenses of bus operations,” said Jia-Ru Li, CEO of Lilee Systems. “It can effectively solve urban transportation issues of driver shortages and improves safety by avoiding human errors. Through close government-industry collaborations, we are confident that the ART system will become a sustainable public transportation mode for the future.”

Lilee Systems is headquartered in Silicon Valley with an office in Taipei, Taiwan.