MAN and Mobileye collaborate for autonomous bus

MAN Truck & Bus and Mobileye have entered a partnership to advance autonomous driving solutions. The first joint goal: pilot operation of an initial automated city bus with a safety driver starting in 2025 as part of the Minga research project in Munich.

That urban bus mobility in the future will not only be emission-free and connected but also automated is not a general question, but merely a matter of time. (MAN Bus Chief Barbaros Oktay)

Addressing the Shortage of Driving Personnel

Drivers for automated driving in the city bus sector are mainly TCO savings and the shortage of driving personnel, which can be countered in this way. At the same time, more and more smaller transportation means, starting with passenger cars, are beginning to push into the market with highly automated driving.

The Roadmap

Mobileye has developed Mobileye DriveTM, a turnkey self-driving system ready for scalable commercial use, equipped with a sophisticated sensor system. It also features "Safety by Design" and the use of highly scalable AV maps. In parallel, MAN is creating the necessary vehicle architecture to meet the requirements of bus automation.

Comprehensive Ecosystem

Another task for MAN is to integrate the autonomous vehicles into a comprehensive ecosystem. Because automating the bus in the complex urban setting means more than just the driving function: consider other activities of driving personnel such as communicating with passengers including ticket sales, behavior at bus stops, de-escalation in conflict situations, or responding to unexpected events like detours or accidents. This requires intelligent solutions that can be found primarily through the increasing possibilities in the field of digitization.

Project Minga

The first automated MAN bus of the Lion’s City E type is expected to demonstrate its automated capabilities in Munich's city traffic from 2025, accompanied by a safety driver. It is likely to be used on bus line 144, which is characterized by tourism and leisure, through the Olympiapark as part of the research project Minga. In this project led by the City of Munich's Mobility Department and funded by the Federal Ministry of Transport, MAN and numerous other project partners from industry, science, administration, and associations are working on the integration of automated vehicles into the existing mobility ecosystem. Subsequently, MAN plans to introduce further pilot vehicles for actual customer use and aims for full series maturity by the end of the decade. The fact that Germany has established the world's first legal framework for autonomous driving is a decisive advantage in this context.