Stagecoach has begun the UK’s first trial of full-size autonomous buses in mixed traffic on a scheduled public service, running in fast moving traffic between Fife and Edinburgh.ALANMILLARhas been along for the ride and reports on where potentially driver-less technology may lead in decades to come.

Should you find this article in an archive 20 years from now, around 2043, you will already have a clear idea of what role autonomous driving technology plays in road transport. Perhaps the very notion that a human being would sit behind a steering wheel, eyes constantly watching the road ahead and behind, using his or her feet to brake and accelerate, will seem as quaint, old fashioned and potentially dangerous as riding horseback in 2023. Or as unnecessary as a constant mesh gearbox and double declutching. On the other hand, history may show that the idea that sensors, cameras and radar would ever replace human intervention was as misplaced, farfetched and of science fiction as time travel. Maybe it will sit somewhere in between, assisting rather than replacing drivers.

We lack such clarity today, but in a possible world first, a small, but momentous step was taken towards it on May 15 when Stageco…