ELIN – Ride the future

ELIN is a multibrand pilot consisting of two autonomous buses that run along a two-kilometre route in Linköping’s Valla district . The area includes the campus of Linköping University (LiU), residential housing and businesses. The area will be extended during 2021 as a part of the EU project SHOW.

Since February 2020 one Easymile and one Navya shuttle, both with safety drivers on board, drive a circular 2 km route with eight marked bus stops. The service is currently free of charge.

The ELIN project is a collaboration between Linköping University, VTI, Linköping municipality, Transdev, Östgötatrafiken, RISE, Akademiska Hus, and Mjärdevi Science Park.

The buses are one component in a research collaboration to demonstrate how electrified, autonomous will be an integrated part in future sustainable cities. ELIN is furthermore an open platform for research and studies, and for collaboration and co-production supporting sustainable transportation and regional development.

The budget of phase 1 is 1.25 M€ for operation, funded as a collaboration between the eight core partners. Additional research funding mainly comes from governmental research funding programs.

Projects with automated vehicles on public roads require permission from the Swedish Transport Agency. Current legislation requires the presence of a physical driver inside or outside the vehicle. From 2021 the legislation will allow for more advanced testing without a physical driver.

For routes which include driving on roads dedicated for other road users (bus lanes, bike lanes) the municipality of Linköping (land owner) needs to issue an exemption.

Employing novel technologies into real world conditions is a “learn by doing” process with challenges ranging from practical problems to more administrative ones. While the use of two different bus-makes gives a broad experience, situations which require individual handling also occur. Barriers regarding willingness to use shared solutions is another challenge, emphasized through the Covid-19 pandemic (since March 2020).

During the first seven months, from the start in November 2019, the buses have completed over 720 hours and more than 4000 km with a total of about 1500 passengers, despite the Covid-19 outbreak. No incidents have been reported.

Some technical difficulties have been encountered and solved. These include interaction with infrastructural elements that may have shifted and growing “greens”, which points out the importance of maintenance. Furthermore, some modifications have been made to the respective vehicle’s hardware and software in order to comply to the regulatory assessment by the Swedish Transport Agency.

ELIN is a part of several national and international research projects, such as the Horizon 2020 project SHOW. https://show-project.eu/