Don't try talking to the driver: In Nokia city Espoo, robot buses now cruise the streets

In the month-long trial, the buses will transport up to nine passengers on a short fixed route, sharing the road with normal traffic. It looks like a minibus and moves like a minibus. But a closer look reveals why this vehicle is turning heads on the streets of Espoo, Finland: there's no driver. The presence of these electric vehicles in Espoo is because it's the location for one of the first pilot projects in the world to trial the use of self-driving buses on open public roads, offering passengers free transport. "There have been some experiments on public roads, but still so few that we need a lot more experience with it to really move [development] forward," says Harri Santamala, manager of the pilot project at Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences.