Buses

The electric bus segment isn't the sexiest corner of the greater electric vehicle market. California's Gaffoglio Family Metalcrafters aims to change that with a sleek, all-electric bus prototype that might just inspire you ditch to your sports car for a bus pass.

Toyota has delivered the first of its Fuel Cell (FC) buses to the Tokyo Bureau of Transportation that will run on a regular route starting in March. The 76-passenger bus is the first of an anticipated fleet of 100 such vehicles being deployed ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

California is once again getting an electric school bus, and this time it's a full-size Type C. The result of carbon market cooperation between Québec and California, the all-electric eLion from Québec's Lion Bus quietly navigates local streets without leaving a cloud of diesel fumes in its wake.

Mercedes-Benz has given us a glimpse of what the future of public transport may look like, with a demo of its Future Bus with CityPilot. The tech-filled vehicle combines connectivity, camera and radar systems and is described by Mercedes as "a milestone on the way to the autonomous city bus."

London's famed red buses are set to receive a little dash of green, thanks to five new all-electric additions to the fleet. After being formally received at a ceremony last week, the new emission-free vehicles will now be rolled out along service routes where pollution is of particular concern.

One of the difficulties in addressing homelessness is that homeless populations can rise or fall more quickly than is possible to react to, leaving areas under- or over-resourced. The Sleepbus, however, will provide a mobile haven for people sleeping rough, that can move where it's needed.

Transport for London (TfL) is trialling e-ink digital displays to provide passengers with travel information. Maps, timetable and arrival times are shown in real time.

A driverless bus developed by French firm Easymile is to go into operation at a business park in California and a park in Singapore. The EZ10 is operated entirely autonomously and doesn't even have a steering wheel. Easymile says it hopes to have 100-200 EZ10s in operation by 2017​.

One of the biggest limitations of electric buses is range. Now, though, a US company has eked out over 250 miles (402 km) from one of its electric buses. The Proterra Catalyst XR is said to afford the best efficiency rating ever for a 40-ft (12-m) transit bus, at 22 mpg (12.8 l/l00 km) equivalent.

Romanian tech firm Onyx Beacon is teaming up with the local authorities in Bucharest to install 500 iBeacon devices on local buses. It's hoped that the new Smart Public Transport (SPT) initiative will make the city more accessible for the estimated 12,000 visually impaired citizens who live there.

A new fully-functioning Lego bus stop has been installed in the vicinity of Hamleys toy shop, London.

Scientists at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) are developing a computer model that helps engineers integrate the electric TOSA buses into existing transport systems while keeping costs down.