(17 Mar 2025)
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Barcelona – 12 March 2025
1. Various of autonomous bus driving through downtown Barcelona
2. Interior of bus as it drives
3. Student Pau Cugat sitting on bus
4. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Pau Cugat, student: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
“Each passing day we are more and more into the future. Right before this one I saw a regular combustion bus and I thought ‘you have the bus of the past, and right behind it you have the bus of the future’."
5. Zoom in on screen displaying front camera, GPS position
6. SOUNDBITE (Spanish) Laura Hernansaez, pensioner:
“It makes me so happy. As it’s the first time, I called my granddaughter who lives in Dubai, and she told me to send her a photo.”
7. Close of screen
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Patrick Vergelas, head of Autonomous Mobility Projects for Renault Group: ++STARTS ON PREVIOUS SHOT++
“In autonomous driving, clearly the U.S. does a lot of experimentation, with a lot of vehicles. Same thing in China. And for the moment, we don’t have a lot in fact in Europe, and this is the reason why we want to show now that this works and to prepare Europe to go to this ‘public transport autonomous.’"
9. Close of exterior of bus
10. Passengers inside the bus
11. Bus driving down street
STORYLINE:
Commuters in downtown Barcelona have been able to ride the bus for free. There’s just one catch: this mini-bus has no one at the wheel.
The bus pulls away from the stop with its passengers on its own, brakes before changing lanes and eases down one of Barcelona’s most fashionable boulevards.
Renault has been testing a new driverless mini-bus in Barcelona.
The autonomous vehicle is running on a 2.2-km (1.3-mile) circular route with four stops in the center of the Spanish city. Adventurous commuters can jump on free of charge.
The French carmaker has teamed up with WeRide, a company specializing in autonomous vehicles, to make the prototype.
It unveiled the driverless bus at the French Open venue last year, but now it is testing it on the open road in Barcelona.
It also has testing projects going in Valence, France, and at the Zurich airport.
Pau Cugat stepped aboard for a short ride along Passeig de Gracia boulevard.
“Each passing day we are more and more into the future. Right before this one I saw a regular combustion bus and I thought ‘you have the bus of the past, and right behind it you have the bus of the future,’” he said.
The company said that is able to drive safely on a given course through a busy downtown area.
The electric bus can run for 120 kilometers without needing to recharge and reach 40 kilometers per hour (25 mph).
It is equipped with 10 cameras and eight sensor arrays to help it navigate streets filled with cars, motorbikes and pedestrians.
Renault’s initiative comes as Europe generally lags behind the United States and China in driverless vehicle technology, where companies are fiercely competing to get ahead.
Barcelona’s city officials said they have had no reports of accidents caused by the experimental bus.
AP video shot by German Martinez/Hernan Munoz
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