Karsan autonomous bus involved in Gothenburg tram collision. “Incident appears not related to the autonomous driving system,” says Karsan

A Karsan autonomous electric bus operating in Gothenburg, Sweden, was involved in a collision with a tram on May 25.

The incident occurred around one hour after the autonomous Karsan e-ATAK bus began carrying paying passengers as part of a year-long autonomous public transport trial in Gothenburg. Reuters reported that the bus was struck from behind by a tram during traffic operations.

No injuries were recorded in the collision. Patrik Chi, spokesperson for public transport organizer Vasttrafik, told Reuters that “the bus braked and was hit by the tram”.

The Gothenburg autonomous transport trial includes a safety driver on board the vehicle, ready to take control if required.

Karsan autonomous e-ATAK involved in Gothenburg traffic incident

The model is know for being the only Level-4 autonomous bus available today on the European market. Earlier this year Norwegian authority approved driverless Karsan e-Atak operation without safety driver.

The project started with the electric Atak platform, launched in 2019. The Turkish manufacturer announced in 2020 it was working on a Level-4 automated version of the vehicle in partnership with Adastec. The model was subsequently introduced as the Autonomous e-Atak and began real-world deployments in Europe in 2022, when it entered service in Stavanger, Norway, becoming the first full-size autonomous bus operating on a public transport route in the continent. Since then, the vehicle has been involved in several pilot and operational projects, including deployments in Finland, trials in Germany’s Hannover Region and airport operations in the Netherlands, while further projects have been announced in cities such as Paris.

Back to Gothenburg’s facts, in a statement released following the incident, Karsan said its Autonomous e-ATAK vehicle “sustained damage as a result of contact from a tram approaching from behind during traffic flow”.

The Turkish manufacturer stated that preliminary technical evaluations indicated that the autonomous driving system “functioned as designed throughout the process”.

According to Karsan, the vehicle detected surrounding obstacles in traffic and continued operation “within established safety protocols”, while the tram approaching from behind “failed to maintain a sufficient following distance and made contact with the vehicle”.

Karsan added that, based on initial findings, “the incident appears not to be related to the autonomous driving system, but rather to be a traffic incident occurring within urban traffic flow”.

According to Reuters, Vasttrafik stated that the circumstances of the collision remain under investigation.

Karsan said that all details related to the incident continue to be evaluated together with local authorities and transportation stakeholders.