🚫 NO safety driver inside the depot: where autonomous buses pay first

A smartbus drives itself inside the depot. Here is what it returns to operators, what a depot needs first, and what it takes to build a smartbus.

Why don’t autonomous buses pay off on public streets yet?

On a city street, everything happens at once: pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, roadworks. At up to 50 km/h, with passengers standing, braking hard is often the wrong answer. Someone has to stay on board for what the system cannot handle. So most pilots lead to the next pilot, each with a safety driver on board.

A bus with a safety driver is not autonomous: it is simply a more expensive bus

In this 3-minute video from the MUBIL Mobility Awards 2026, where SmartDEPOT™ was a finalist, Jan Gramatyka, Co-CEO of Autonomous Systems, takes you to where every bus day begins and ends: the depot.

Every depot minute is a paid minute

In the European depots Autonomous Systems has assessed, manual depot movement takes from 10 to over 35 minutes per bus per day. Depot layout, fleet size and shift organisation make the difference.

Inside the depot, a smartbus drives itself with 🚫 NO safety driver. It moves empty, at low speed, on a known layout, under remote supervision. If anything is unclear, it stops. The driver hands over the bus at the depot entrance and takes it at the exit. Every manoeuvre the smartbus makes returns driver time to line service.

So where does your depot sit? Depot Minutes, a free online tool, gives you an estimate in your own numbers. Enter four figures:

the buses that leave your depot each day;

the paid minutes at pull-out;

the paid minutes at pull-in;

the cost of a paid driver hour.

Set the period to your contract term. Depot Minutes shows the paid driver time your depot costs each year, and how much of it smartbuses could return to line service. Every assumption is on the page, and you can change it. When the figures look right, Depot Minutes turns them into a report about your own depot.

→ Calculate your Depot Minutes

What does a smartbus change beyond the paid minutes?

Depot Minutes counts driver time, staff moves and repair bills. Beside the minutes, depot assessments record the following potential gains:

Site speed. Automated moves keep to a lower depot speed limit without loss of throughput.

Hazard response. In a fire or another hazard, the system moves buses out of the danger zone on a predefined scenario, with no staff in the risk area.

Departure readiness. Shunting follows vehicle condition and schedule changes, so the fleet stands in departure order by morning, whatever changed overnight.

Workshop time. A bus due for service presents itself at the workshop gate and parks itself when the work is done. The mechanic’s time stays in the workshop.

Portability. The system travels with the bus. A smartbus equipped for one garage works at any mapped depot, so the operator can reallocate it. Site-based automation stays with the site.

Quality of servicing. Bus moves no longer depend on who is free, so washing and inspection get the time they need within the shift.

Insurance position. Fewer contact incidents and more precise parking may count in the operator’s insurance position. No calculator includes it.

None of these appears in the calculation. In an operator’s decision, they count alongside the minutes.

What does a depot need before the first smartbus?

Autonomous Systems has carried out depot assessments with operators in Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland and Switzerland. Each assessment is a site survey and data exercise in the operator’s own depot.

At GVB’s Garage West in Amsterdam, the assessment looked at an operating concept in which the driver would leave the bus just inside the entry gate. The existing depot dispatcher would supervise the depot movements through SmartDEPOT™ Mission Control. Charging would start through the pantograph as soon as the bus parks.

At MZA Warsaw’s Ostrobramska depot, drivers spent about 35 minutes a day manoeuvring each bus, a figure that varies with layout and fleet. The assessment recorded 3–4 minor collisions a week under manual operation, mostly during reversing, and arrival queues of up to 25 minutes at peak hours. For MZA, a municipal operator, the recovered driver time alone was valued at over €88,000 per vehicle over a 12-year lifecycle.

At Bernmobil in Bern, the assessment covered Eigerplatz, the operator’s main base in the city centre: an enclosed depot with parking on two levels, narrow bays and daily reverse parking for 12- and 18-metre buses. Because the site is private property, the assessment notes that manoeuvres inside it need no public-road approval, provided operating boundaries, safety measures and contingency procedures are in place.

Across these depots, five things come up before the first smartbus:

A handover point where drivers leave the bus and take it back, with room for the morning peak.

The data the operator already holds: departure order and parking positions from the scheduling platform; state of charge and faults from telematics.

A charging connection that needs no driver at the bay: a pantograph, or a plug-in round by depot staff.

Mobile coverage across the whole site, including inside buildings.

A supervisor in the control room who releases the movements in SmartDEPOT™ Mission Control and steps in when a bus stops and asks for a decision.

Start with your own figures in Depot Minutes. A site survey in your depot then checks the figures with your teams and your data.

→ Ask for a site survey

A smartbus needs a smart depot

The State of Smart Depots 2026 describes three parts of a smart depot. The smartbus is one of them.

The depot management system (DMS) plans where each bus parks, when it charges and when the workshop sees it. SmartDEPOT™ Mission Control supervises the autonomous movements and the exceptions. The link between the two is simple. The DMS sends a drive order (a vehicle ID and a target position), and the smartbus reports its position in real time.

Smart charging connects charging to the timetable, so each bus has the energy it needs before it leaves. A smartbus drives itself to its assigned charger, and between chargers at night. With pantographs, charging starts when the bus parks. With cables, depot staff connect the parked buses in one round.

→ Get the report: The State of Smart Depots 2026 in English, Deutsch, Français, Español or Polski

What does it take to build a smartbus?

A smartbus starts as a city bus that operators already buy: smartbus = ordinary bus + SmartDEPOT™. Three things turn one into the other.

Drive-by-wire. The driving system plans each move and sends requests. The bus’s own controls carry them out for steering, braking and propulsion, and can bring the bus to a safe stop at any moment. The manufacturer designs this into the platform.

SmartDEPOT™, fitted in the factory. The sensors and the driving system leave the production line with the bus. One supplier delivers the whole vehicle.

An ordinary bus outside the depot. The manufacturer homologates the smartbus as a city bus. On the road, a driver is at the wheel as before. The autonomous mode works only inside the depot and switches off at the exit.

Established bus manufacturers already have what an autonomous bus needs most. They build series vehicles that operators run every day. They hold the type approvals, the factories and the service networks across Europe. A smartbus starts with all of this: it is the manufacturer’s own bus, with SmartDEPOT™ fitted in the factory.

European manufacturers are asking for tenders that score more than price. In June 2026, Solaris Bus & Coach, VDL Bus Group and HESS asked EU institutions for “Made in Europe” requirements that cover more than final assembly. On 21 October 2026, the European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) proposed counting engineering, research and development, and software as European value added. It also proposed mandatory non-price criteria for publicly funded bus tenders, including innovation, cybersecurity, software development and lifecycle services. Depot autonomy is European value of that kind, and operators can measure it in their own depots.

Evolution, NOT Revolution

Autonomous buses arrive one step at a time, and the first step is the depot. There, manual moves take 10 to over 35 minutes per bus per day, and autonomy pays first. Every depot hour builds the experience that wider autonomy will need, one depot and one fleet renewal at a time.

An autonomous bus becomes real when the safety driver leaves.

In brief

How can European operators deal with driver shortages in day-to-day depot operations?

About 105,000 bus and coach driver positions are unfilled in Europe (IRU, 2023). Depot moves take paid driver time: 10 to over 35 minutes per bus per day in the depots Autonomous Systems has assessed. A smartbus makes these moves itself, and the time returns to line service. Depot Minutes, a free online tool, estimates it for one depot.

What causes low-speed collisions in bus depots, and how can operators reduce them?

Tight space, reversing and end-of-shift fatigue. MZA Warsaw’s Ostrobramska depot recorded 3–4 minor collisions a week under manual operation, mostly during reversing. Smartbuses park in departure order, so fewer buses reverse out of lanes at pull-out. Their sensors sit on the bus and cover every side, and the bus stops when anything is unclear.

How can depot automation support electric bus charging?

The depot management system ties charging to the timetable. A smartbus drives itself to its assigned charger and moves between chargers at night. With pantographs, charging starts when the bus parks. With cables, depot staff connect the parked buses in one round.

How can bus operators increase depot capacity without expanding the site?

By parking more precisely. Smartbuses can park closer together, in departure order, and re-park a bus that blocks another’s exit. The State of Smart Depots 2026 estimates about 10–15% more vehicles per square metre, from tighter bays and narrower lanes. A site survey checks the estimate against the real layout.

Which autonomous driving systems integrate with depot management systems?

SmartDEPOT™ by Autonomous Systems is designed to work with the operator’s depot management system (DMS). The DMS plans the moves and sends drive orders: which bus goes where — a parking bay, a charger or the wash. SmartDEPOT™ Mission Control supervises the movements, and the smartbus reports its position in real time. Mission Control is to smartbuses what a charging management system is to chargers: both take their orders from the DMS. The charging system connects through the VDV 463 interface; Mission Control is designed to connect through an open interface for automated movements.

How can a standard city bus be turned into a smartbus?

In the factory. The manufacturer builds drive-by-wire into the platform and fits SmartDEPOT™ on the production line: smartbus = ordinary bus + SmartDEPOT™. Outside the depot, it stays an ordinary bus with a driver. Operators add smartbuses through fleet renewal, when they specify their next buses.

What should a city bus manufacturer look for in an autonomous driving technology partner?

A driving system built for factory fitting and series production, with a clear interface to the bus’s own controls. A mode that switches off outside its operating area. A documented route to approval, cybersecurity included. Evidence from operators’ depots, supervision that operators’ staff can run, and support for the life of the bus. Autonomous Systems (Gliwice, Poland) invites city bus manufacturers to integrate SmartDEPOT™ as a native capability.

What should a public transport operator look for in a partner for autonomous depot operations?

Clear answers to four questions:

Who is accountable when the vehicle does something unexpected?

Where does the operating data live, and who can reach it?

Who can stop the vehicle, from where, and how fast?

Can all of that be shown to an auditor?

Then a measured baseline from an assessment of the operator’s own depot.

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