Swish Swiss Schaffhausen Safari (4)

Yesterday we left Schaffhausen's trolleybus route 1 (the only one) at the Migros supermarket stop in the centre of Neuhausen am Rheinfall.

In 1980 the route was extended in a south westerly direction to the suburb of Herbstäcker ...

... where there is another terminal loop. Here is one terminating ...

... with its cross-town destination inexplicably obscured by visual fuzz from Streetview. (Don't tell Google, but fbb and most of the population of Neuhausen know that it is going to Walfriedheim.)

This is the section of route that we met earlier which now uses the dive-under at Bad Bahnhof station, a replacement for a congestion-creating level crossing.

The route map doesn't seem keen to show you how close the two are; perhaps because trains thence are run by G*rm*n R**lw*ys. Indeed, the on-line presence of Schaffhausen's bus and trolley system is disappointingly poor. fbb encountered several "Error 403" pages but did manage to download a PDF copy of the local buses timetable from 2016.

The map shows many other services over and above the seven routes on the cover.

This confirmed, however, that route 1 runs every ten minutes Monday to Saturday daytimes ...

... and every 20 minutes evenings and Sundays.

But the booklet does not, for obvious reasons, show the latest route to serve the Migros stop, service 12.

Maybe you should watch the video; the commentary is in Swiss German but a few captions will help you grasp the nub of the matter.

Yep, it is a driverless bus!

Obviously this is a demonstration in a taped-off industrial estate with media present and; did you spot the Nuovo van lurking close by? Nuovo is the manufacturer of the vehicle and, presumably, a few chaps in white coats complete with fuse wire and screwdrivers were on hand just in case.

But, more interestingly, this second video shows the micro-bus running round the town centre loop and interacting with other traffic.

Did you also spot the sudden "lurch" on the approach to a pedestrian crossing?

Still pictures show the 12 at the Migros stop with a route 1 trolley ...

... and even possibly pootling about in the hours of darkness.

In both the above shots, there is no sign of "real" passengers.

On-line we are told where the 12 goes. At the moment it runs from the centre loop ...

... a whole one stop (RED line) to Industrieplatz where, in an earlier blog we met a stop for route 6 and the new-ish railway station for the Rhein falls.

There is a proposal to extend it (PURPLE line) down the hill and round the "bay" to the Schlössli Wörth to connect with boats to the falls; and where you can imagine (but not afford!) a meal at that ludicrously expensive nosh-haus.

The web site is enthusiastic ...

... and there is a timetable of sorts.

IF this happens as it claims it does, then it must be one of the first autonomous buses operating on "normal" roads interacting with real live traffic.

Author, runner, and one-time London Mayoral candidate, Christian Wolmar ...

... has written often, expressing the view that fully autonomous vehicles will never happen. This is a typical extract from one of his many articles.

The driverless car does not stand up to scrutiny. When pressed, Elon Musk conceded that the “fully autonomous” car that he said would be ready by 2018 would not be completely automatic, nor would it go on general sale. There is a pattern. Whenever I ask people in the field what we can expect by a certain date, it never amounts to anything like a fully autonomous vehicle but rather a set of aids for drivers.

This is a crucial distinction. For this technology to be transformational, the cars have to be 100 per cent autonomous. It is worse than useless if the “driver” has to watch over the controls, ready to take over if an incident seems likely to occur. Such a future would be more dangerous than the present, as our driving skills will have diminished, leaving us less able to react. Google notes that it can take up to 17 seconds for a person to respond to alerts of a situation requiring him or her to assume control of the vehicle.

Does Neuhausen prove him wrong?

Needless to say, the driverless micro-bus always carries a driver.

Another on-line video shows these "attendants" being trained in how to drive and how to intervene in a crisis ...

... using what looks very much like a games console control thingey! Perhaps you could play Super Mario Kart whilst negotiating the delights of Neuhausen centre?

Christian Wolmar wouldn't like the idea!!

fbb has suggested that No 3 son should take a day trip from Basel to enjoy the Neuhausen falls and try out the micro bus. But the fare, like food, will be expensive.  (approx £77 return for a one-and-a-half hour journey - three hours return; compares unfavourable with, say £34 for similar length of trip from Axminster)

So he probably won't go!

Meanie!

 Next Luton to London blog : Thursday 4th April