Trying out the self-driving shuttle – a possible passenger vehicle for Hammersmith Bridge

Ian Pulford, CEO of Ohmio UK

Introducing the Barnes Hammersmith Electric Light Transit

The Chiswick Calendar was invited to take part in a demonstration of the Ohmio LIFT on Friday, the driverless, zero-emission electric shuttle bus which is being promoted as a solution for ferrying elderly and disabled passengers across the defunct Hammersmith Bridge.

Now Hammersmith & Fulham Council has acknowledged the futlity of trying to raise the extortionate cost of strengthening the bridge to the point where it could take vehicles again, a group of local residents is seeking to persuade them the electric pods are the way forward for those unable to cross the bridge by bike or on foot.

The Barnes Hammersmith Electric Light Transit (BHELT) group brings together members of the community from both sides of the river, including representatives from the Hammersmith Society and Barnes Community Association, in partnership with Ohmio UK.

The buses, in a cheery bubblegum pink and a more tasteful dark blue, were parked up beside Barnes Pond, where Ohmio UK’s CEO Ian Pulford and a couple of the AI / Robotics engineers were on hand to show off their babies.

As yet they are not allowed by law to let them drive around without a human driver, but they had spent a couple of days programming the pods to know the route – a loop through Barnes village along the river to Castelnau and back, so all the safety driver had to do was to take control at junctions.

It is bizarre being on a bus without a steering wheel or footbrakes. The driver operated it with a joy stick and computer screen.

They accommodate 14 people (eight seated) and my group included people from the Hammersmith Society and the Barnes Community Association, someone from the London Cycling Campaign, Peter Murray, who is standing as an independent candidate for London Mayor the the next elections, and an architect working on the pedestrianisation of Oxford Street, as well as the MP for Hammersmith and Chiswick Andy Slaughter.

Pigeons and cats beware

We were told to use the seat belts, which seemed a little excessive given that they only go at 15mph, but it was soon apparent why. The bus negotiated two sets of roadworks and parked cars along the route perfectly, but freaked out when a pigeon flew past too close.

It slammed on the digital brakes, causing my handbag and water bottle, beside me on the seat, to shoot across the bus.

The bus’s sensors are very efficient, so the engineers tweak the programming to allow it to interpret what is around it. It doesn’t understand the difference between a person – a child running across the road or a passing cyclist – or a cat, a dog or a bird, or even a bit of cardboard blown by the wind.

As we jerked and jolted our way round the course the rather frazzled CEO explained apologetically that the route was particularly challenging and if they had had three weeks rather than three days to prepare for the demonstration they could have programmed it not to panic and the ride would have been a whole lot smoother.

This was just a technical run to demonstrate the vehicle’s ability. The route is the kind of consideration which will come much later if the idea gets off the ground, but a far easier route, and probably all that is actually required, would be for the buses just to cross the bridge, connecting with public transport at either end, rather than taking on full on London traffic.

Ian Pulford did rather dig himself in when he announced confidently that the bus could be programmed not to stop for small birds  – it would stop for children and dogs but not for birds and cats he said.

Not stop for cats? What did the bus company have against cats?

Realising he may have lost my support with that little aside, he backpeddled and assured me it was for others to decide how the buses should be programmed, and he personally had nothing against cats but the Highway code dictated drivers should not slam on the emergency brakes for them.

The buses are in use already in various parts of the world – South Korea, the United States, Finland, Belgium and the Netherlands as well as seven in operation here in Milton Keynes and Suffolk, so those God-like decisions are already being taken.

A far bigger problem may be the weight. Charles Campion from BHELT told us the lightweight vehicles weighed three tonnes fully loaded. When they started the project this was the weight restriction on Hammersmith Bridge, he said, but it has since gone down to 1.5.

If these vehicles are to provide a solution either they have to be redesigned to be lighter, or the bridge has to have further strengthening, or a bit of both. The next step will be to raise funding for a feasibility study.

Andy Slaughter MP

Andy Slaughter’s impression?

“Notwithstanding a few jolts and bumps I am impressed by the idea. The minimal position would be to start the journey on the Hammersmith side maybe by the Apollo, as near to the transport hub as possible.

“I personally would stop it as soon as it was able to connect with other transportation. There would be no real problem with that route I think.

“It’s quite liberating”.

Chiswick councillor Jack Emsley, who was on the other bus, was also positive about his trip:

“This is a promising project that could solve some of the many challenges caused by the bridge closure”, he told me.

“Autonomous vehicles have a big part to play in urban transport, and Hammersmith Bridge could be a world leading test case in modern city planning.

“Of course, the fact remains that these solutions wouldn’t be needed if the government and local councils worked out a way to fix the bridge – the fact that Hammersmith Bridge now looks likely to never reopen is a national embarrassment, and is bad news for residents here in Chiswick.”