There are many reasons to automate buses: particularly in urban traffic, significant potential can be unlocked in terms of efficiency and safety. Automated buses can help reduce road traffic accidents, and in the long term they help address the growing shortage of drivers in the commercial vehicle industry. Against the backdrop of expanding cities in particular, they offer enormous potential to make the mobility solutions of the future more efficient, flexible and sustainable.
MAN Truck & Bus has therefore been working on the automation of its vehicles for a number of years. The company relies on collaboration with technology leaders and on pilot projects in which new technologies for autonomous driving are tested in real-world conditions. One of these is MINGA: the name of the research project stands for "Munich's automated local transport with ridepooling, solo bus and bus platoons", but also refers to the Bavarian pronunciation of the word "München". As part of MINGA, MAN has equipped a fully electric Lion's City 12 E with an Automated Driving System (ADS) in collaboration with its technology partner ADASTEC, and integrated this into the vehicle's electronic architecture.
