Espoo, FI is piloting AVs

Espoo, Finland’s second largest city, began a pilot of a driverless shuttle service in June 2019. Gacha, the shuttle designed by Japanese firm Muji in partnership with Finnish firm Sensible 4, will begin serving the Otaniemi-Keilaniemi area, a high-tech innovation cluster. Two shuttles are scheduled to run Tuesday-Thursday from 10:00-14:00 on a three-stop 2 km route connecting passengers disembarking from Aalto University Metro Station to nearby apartments and offices. The long-term goal, however, is to build towards a year-round permanent bus service by 2021.

This is the Gacha bus’ first public trial. The 4WD all-weather electric vehicles has a capacity of 16 (10 sitting, 6 standing) and a max speed of 40 km/h in autonomous mode. It even features a wireless charging option. Additional Gacha deployments are planned in several other Finnish cities: Hämeenlinna, Vantaa and Helsinki.