Five Taiwan-based companies and government-sponsored Automotive Research & Testing Center will form an intelligent driving industry alliance to promote autonomous buses for public transportation services in Taiwan.

The five companies are bus service operator Green Transit, self-driving system developer Turing Drive, navigation-use high-definition digital map provider Kingwaytek Technology, smart transportation solution provider Lilee Systems, automotive component maker Mobiletron Electronics together with its subsidiary electric bus maker RAC Electric Vehicles.

Green Transit has cooperated with THI Consultants, Taiwan Optical Platform, Wistron and government-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to complete trial run of autonomous buses on some selected roads in Taichung, central Taiwan, company chairman Hsu Hong-fong said. The on-road trial run accumulated running distance of 1,300km with over 800 passengers in total, Hsu noted.

According to transport minister Lin Chia-lung, the team will undertake more complicated trial run of autonomous buses in Taichung.