Autonomous Karsan bus for Norway
Karsan’s autonomous e-ATAK buses will be used for the first time in Europe on a city route to carry passengers in the city of Stavanger, Norway. Capable of reaching speed of up to 50 kilometres per hour in all weather conditions night and day when in self-driving mode, the bus can autonomously perform tasks previously done by a human driver such as pulling into bus stops on the route, managing the passengers getting on/off, navigating through roundabouts, thoroughfares or traffic lights etc.
Karsan CEO Okan Baş says, “We made our first export in the Northern European market, to Norway with our 8-metre electric autonomous bus e-ATAK. We continue to lead the way in to the future of transportation with our products. This is another milestone for Karsan Autonomous e-ATAK, as it will be the first driverless big bus to carry passengers in real road conditions in Europe”.
The autonomous e-ATAK will be operated by Vy Buss and will go into service for the regional PTA, Kolumbus.
The autonomous technology is supplied by Adastec whose CEO Ali Ufuk Peker says: “We are very excited to extend our flowride.ai Level-4 Automated Driving Software Platform in partnership with Karsan Autonomous e-ATAK to Norway.”
The 8.3m autonomous e-ATAK carries 52 passengers and is powered by 220kWh batteries developed by BMW reaching 230kW of power, and claims a 300 km range.