Self-Driving bus in Sweden crashes with tram on first day of passenger service

A self-driving bus was involved in a crash with a tram on its first day of carrying passengers in the Swedish city of Gothenburg. The bus has, for now, been taken out of service for inspection, a Västtrafik spokesperson, Patrik Chi, said.

The self-driving bus, with passengers onboard in Gothenburg, braked suddenly and was hit from behind by a tram. There were no casualties or personal injuries. A driver was onboard the vehicle to take control if necessary.

Sweden’s Transportstyrelsen had given the green light for the bus to carry passengers as part of a trial scheduled to last until 31 July 2027.

Self-driving buses and shuttles in Europe operate under local authorisations granted city by city and route by route, often on private roads. The European Union has not yet granted Europe-wide approval for the commercial deployment of self-driving public transport or public taxis.

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Waymo's Self-Driving Taxi failure

Recently, Waymo paused its services in two cities as its robotaxis ended up entering flooded areas. The issue has already led the company to issue a recall last week. One of Waymo’s robotaxis drove through a flooded street in Atlanta, Georgia, on Wednesday, getting reportedly stuck for more than an hour. The vehicle was soon recovered and removed from the scene.

Reports confirm that Waymo has admitted it had not finished developing a final strategy for avoiding flooded areas when it issued a software recall last week. The company had shipped an update to its fleet that placed strict restrictions on operating in areas and at times where there is an elevated risk of encountering floods and high-speed roadways, according to documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

However, these precautions did not stop robotaxis from entering flooded zones, and a few vehicles ended up entering a flooded intersection in Atlanta. Reports add that this is not the first time Waymo has struggled to quickly address problematic behaviour in its robotaxis. Last year, users observed Waymo robotaxis illegally passing stopped school buses. The company attempted to fix the issue, but similar violations reportedly continued around school buses.

In another incident, a Waymo vehicle picked up AJC journalist Rachael Knudsen on Wednesday evening and, during the trip, got stuck in floodwaters multiple times. Knudsen expressed her frustration in an Instagram post, saying, “It happened again, the Waymo just drove into a flooded street and gave up. although islated events these showcase the possibility of failures if the background codes are not aware of external elements.