The Taipei City Government is to launch a trial of self-driving buses in the Xinyi District (信義) in August at the earliest, Taipei Deputy Mayor Charles Lin (林欽榮) said.
The soft launch is scheduled to last for three months as part of the “Smart” City Industry Field-testing Initiative, Lin said this week.
A decision on whether to expand the trial would be made based on test runs, which are to be conducted after midnight in the bus lanes on Xinyi and Rennai roads, Taipei “Smart” City Office Director Lee Cheng-yu (李鎮宇) said.
The test runs would not be open to the public, he said.
The buses can travel at 20kph to 50kph and are equipped with GPS, radars and navigation computers, he said, adding that they can be remotely controlled via an operations center.
If the trial is successful, the buses would offer an alternative form of public transport late at night, which would help to alleviate bus drivers’ workload, he said.
However, an official launch would likely take some time, as the vehicles would need to be licensed, which would require that the central government amend regulations, he said.
The municipal government must also apply for a license from the Ministry of Transportation and Communications for the trial run, he added.
In related news, the city government plans to erect 12 “Smart” street lights along Neihu District’s (內湖) Zhouzu Street and Gangqian Road as part of a collaborative project between the public and private sectors.
The lights are capable of environmental monitoring, analyzing traffic flow, displaying electronic advertisements and uploading data, the office said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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