Autonomy Hits the Fast Lane—and It's Starting With Buses
With their fixed routes and controlled environments, commercial vehicles like airport shuttles and public transit buses are proving to be the ideal launchpad for SAE Level 4 automation. Leading the charge is Fusion Processing, a global innovator in autonomous driving tech, whose systems have already logged over 90,000 km of real-world autonomous mileage — more than any other AV company in Europe.
From their cutting-edge CAVstar platform to CycleEye for enhanced situational awareness, Fusion’s technology is powering the shift to smarter, safer, and more efficient fleets. We sat down with CEO Jim Hutchinson to explore how Fusion plans to take autonomous buses from pilot programs to global deployment.
Transcript
00:00:01 you co-ounded Fusion Processing. Why are you so laser focused developing autonomous driver systems for commercial vehicles with a particular interest in buses?
>> Yeah, I it's a good question. I I think when when we first started the company, we were looking at, you know, how how best to apply the technology and how how
00:00:20 we could commercialize it, you know, how we could actually turn it into a into a into a good business that that we could fund and we could we could work. And it it really came down to looking at the economics and and uh where we thought the the technology could be commercialized first. Uh and when we look at the the commercial vehicle space, there are just such clear
00:00:42 advantages to to using autonomous vehicles over over manual drive that you know we felt that was that was definitely the uh you know the way we had to where we had to focus. Um so so really that that sort of focus on the commercial on both passenger and freight that's that's that that came very early on in our in our journey. Um I think I think really the the the buses really
00:01:06 came from um specific opportunities which uh which arose. So having sort of, you know, decided that's really the the the the segments we're going to look at. Um the this the the major focus on buses really came from um a a a need within within our our sort of country within within the UK to actually do this. And um but also willing partners and that's you know that's another key um key
00:01:34 necessity is that we've got um willing uh vehicle manufacturers who want to partner with us and and and get in there early and and operators and they they've been you know they've been key uh and they they've been great for for for getting this going and getting it to where it is.
>> When you initially saw the opportunities commercial vehicles is is well
00:01:52 documented. It's a very lucrative field for Tommy, but but zoning in on buses, was it in the public sector? Was it in the private sector? Where did you initially see those opportunities?
>> Well, I think it I think it's in it's in both. And and certainly we're seeing a lot of interest in in in both areas. So, I don't I don't we we haven't really sort of
00:02:12 decided to oh, we'll we'll we'll only look at public sector. um you know there there's there's sort of use cases that that are both in in you know privately managed areas and and uh and regions. So we've got a lot of interest you know in airports and those sort of places and then but also in those you know public public services and a lot of regions are sort of very interested in how they can
00:02:36 uh use this technology and and really improve the services they're offering
>> on airports in April you announced a partnership with Construct Invest to deploy the autonomous buses at airports. Are these going to be on t on tarmac? Will they be behind the gate? Where will they be deployed for airports? Well, it it's looking at at both uh sides of things really because I think there's a
00:02:59 there's there's a definite benefit to using autonomous buses um for for example for terminal to terminal transfers. So if you're looking at uh you know moving lots and lots of people um between two points and you might want to put in a rail system uh but this is hugely expensive. you know, it's the costs of doing that are colossal and um the downside really is is then also that
00:03:27 you've got something that's really quite inflexible. Uh if you then want to change it or want to expand it, it's much much more difficult. Whereas you know the system that we proposed uh we we give um all the same benefits in terms of safety and uh usability and it can scale and it it can scale to uh get the same sort of passenger throughput and it's much more flexible. So when it
00:03:50 needs to be adapted when it needs to be expanded you know it it can do that much more easily and it's you know it's a fraction of the cost of of uh of implementing the rail. So that's that's the one side you know that's that's we see that as a really big opportunity for um for us but also for you know for the airports. Um and then of course there's the other sort of more obvious side
00:04:12 which is uh you know the uh this the car park you know the buses which are taking people from the car parks to to the terminals and you know that's perhaps you know much sort of established as a bus use case. Um but uh yeah we can we can certainly automate that and and uh make make things more efficient.