Karsan is preparing to bring its Autonomous e-ATAK to Switzerland. The Autonomous e-ATAK, which will serve in the historic city of Arbon and will be the country’s first driverless bus, was purchased under the SCCL (Self-Controlled City Liner) project of TGA and will be delivered to the city by Karsan in December. As of January 2025, it will begin passenger transportation under the operator Eurobus Ostschweiz AG in Arbon. The Karsan Autonomous e-ATAK is developed in collaboration with ADASTEC.
The Autonomous e-ATAK, which will serve on a 2.2-kilometre route with 8 stops between the historic city center of Arbon and the new residential area Saurer Werk 2, at a speed of 30 kilometres per hour, will be Switzerland's first automated bus. The Autonomous e-ATAK is equipped with numerous LiDAR sensors located at various points on the vehicle. In addition, the advanced radar technology located at the front, along with the high-resolution image processing capability of RGB cameras, provides extra environmental safety. All these technologies offer according to Karsan Level-4 Autonomous. The vehicle can operate on a planned route and can reach up to 40 km/h in autonomous driving mode in all weather conditions, day or night, and can autonomously perform all the tasks a bus driver would typically handle, such as docking at stops, managing boarding and alighting processes, and navigating intersections and traffic lights. In the Swiss market Karsan initially entered with its Jest minibus and will further solidify its presence with the delivery of 23 electric vehicles to one of the
country's largest operators in August and September." Karsan's Autonomous e-ATAK made history by operating on a 5-kilometre route at Michigan State University in the USA for 1.5 years. In the city of Stavanger, Norway, the Autonomous e-ATAK has been carrying ticketed passengers in open traffic since 2022, and earlier this year, it expanded its existing route to include a tunnel. Having launched autonomous projects in 7 different locations with Autonomous e-ATAK, which recently began operating in Finland after the USA, Norway, France, Romania, and Türkiye, Karsan has achieved 80,000 kilometres of autonomous driving experience, transporting over 30,000 passengers. Additionally, early this year Karsan has also signed an airport autonomous project in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with the delivery of 2 Autonomous e-ATAKs at the end of 2024. ADASTEC is a leading US-based provider of SAE Level-4 automation solutions for full-size buses and commercial vehicles. Its SAE Level-4 automation platform flowride.ai is developed for full-size bus automation.