Quote:
Originally Posted by aberdeen5698
I'd expect that the only thing which could prevent it would be if they were unable to find a way to autonomously re-wire the poles so that the bus could cope with a dewirement. There are systems that can re-wire poles automatically without driver intervention but I believe they're designed for routes that include battery-driven segments where the re-wiring is an expected part of the route, and I think they depend on a special section of overhead with some sort of mechanical guide.
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The new Solaris Trollino buses on order have the option for both semi-automatic and automatic pantograph operation. I haven't seen whether our new buses will have that option. The Buzzer blog says "
These are our first trolley buses to be air conditioned for customer and operator comfort and have in-motion charging — the latest in trolleybus technology. It allows buses to draw power from the overhead wires for both driving and charging its on-board battery.
This means the new trolley buses will be able to operate away from overhead wires for about 20 kilometres.
This opens the possibility for where trolley buses can go in the future. It includes bus routes where there are trolley overhead wires for only part of the route or during temporary detours that currently require switching to diesel buses."
As the new trolley buses won't have self-driving capability, and they should be good for another 20 years or more, the trolleys don't seem likely to be automated for a very long time (even if, in theory, all the problems with on-road self driving were solved).
New Flyer BEV buses already exist with the potential to operate at Level 4 autonomous operating, but that's not allowed anywhere in Canada yet. They're finally returning end-to-end BEV manufacturing to Winnipeg (rather than building most of the bus in the US as happens now), but when that opens in 2027 it will still only have a capacity of building 240 buses a year.
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