Engineers at San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute unveil self-driving bus

After a year of development, San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute unveiled a self-driving passenger bus that its engineers hope can one day yield technological solutions to the city’s traffic woes.

The 14-seat vehicle cruises at speeds of up to 50 miles per hour and is being used to give tours of the nonprofit research facility’s 1,500-acre West Side campus, according to institute officials.

“It is rewarding for our engineers to take the very best technology that SwRI has developed to serve our clients and then embed it into a showcase vehicle that has a practical purpose in our backyard,” Ryan Lamm, director of SwRI’s Applied Sensing Department, said in an emailed statement.

The bus features artificial intelligence that can identify road signs and hazards such as other vehicles and pedestrians. What’s more, the vehicle utilizes machine learning algorithms, meaning it can learn from mistakes and improve its capabilities.

Although currently confined to the SwRI campus, researchers hope to upgrade the vehicle’s capabilities so it can test other autonomous driving technologies.

“This mid-size passenger vehicle presents future opportunities to improve mobility and access to transportation in neighborhoods where large buses cannot travel,” SwRI Engineer Dan Rossite said in a statement. “We are thrilled to be able to say San Antonio not only has this capability at SwRI, but that we are helping to develop and deploy similar systems around the globe.”

Stay on top of San Antonio news and views. Sign up for our Weekly Headlines Newsletter.

Related Stories

As monkeypox spreads, health experts urge Texas universities to prepare for outbreaks

While the risk of exposure to monkeypox remains low, health experts say college students living in close proximity to each other could spur outbreaks. They encourage schools to share their plans and relevant information about the virus.

Billionaire Elon Musk’s Tesla plant gets its own exclusive lane at border crossing in Laredo

A Mexican official attributed the special treatment to a ‘simple incentive’ but declined to reveal more specifics about the deal.

10th Annual Muertos Fest returning to San Antonio’s Hemisfair in late October

This year’s celebration will feature a larger procession, along with a four-stage lineup of musical performers.

Goodwill to open mega-thrift store next year in San Antonio’s Live Oak area

The 25,000-square-foot store is double the size of the Goodwill location at Gateway Plaza, just 7 miles away.

This article appears in Aug 10-23, 2022.