Spanish bus maker Unvi has carried out a semi-autonomous driving demonstration at the University Campus of Ourense with its 100% electric eC22 urban bus, equipped with autonomous driving technology from Imagry.

The vehicle is the first unit developed as part of the collaboration between Unvi, Imagry and UBSI, and will now continue to Herford, Germany, where it will move forward with the next development stages planned within the European Ultimo project.

The vehicle has undergone different integration and testing stages prior to the demonstration at the campus. The first tests were carried out at Unvi’s own facilities, where the initial operation of the different systems was verified. The bus was subsequently transferred to the Parque Tecnolóxico de Galicia, where further testing and fine-tuning work took place.

The next stage took place at the University Campus of Ourense, where the vehicle completed a route in a controlled environment without the driver operating the bus. Throughout the demonstration, a safety driver remained in the driving position, ready to intervene if necessary, accompanied by an Imagry engineer.

Following completion of this phase, the bus will continue to Germany, where further programming, adjustment, validation, homologation and legalisation work will take place prior to its future participation in the European Ultimo project (ultimo-he.eu).

Unvi contributed its experience in the design, development and manufacture of buses and coaches, as well as its ability to adapt its vehicle platforms to different technologies and operational requirements. California-based Imagry (imagry.co) contributed its AI-based autonomous driving technology, while UBSI played a role in areas including homologation, regulatory compliance, technical integration and long-term fleet management.

The technology integrated into the vehicle uses different perception systems to interpret its surroundings and enable the bus to identify the available space, calculate its trajectory and respond to different situations while driving. These systems include cameras, radar, proximity sensors and lidar technology.

“Our collaboration with Imagry demonstrates how our experience and ability to adapt can also contribute to the development of innovative autonomous mobility projects,” said Carlos Rivo, managing director of Unvi (unvibus.com). “For Unvi, this project is also a demonstration of our ability to integrate new technologies into our vehicles and adapt to the transformation currently taking place in passenger transport.”