A driverless shuttle bus has been deployed in Margate as a demonstration of the technology for the fourth annual Self Driving Industry Awards that were held in the town on Friday.

An eight-seater Ohmio Lift shuttle carried passengers from Margate railway station to the Turner Contemporary on the day of the event.

Ohmio, a subsidiary of New Zealand-based transportation tech group HMI Technologies, had demonstrated its vehicles in the parking lot at the previous two awards events.

Autonomous trial

The company began road testing on 8 October ahead of the event, according to Cars of the Future, which operates the awards.

The vehicle has an operational upper speed of 40mph, but this was limited to 16mph for the trial.

It has no steering wheel, but can be controlled manually via a joystick by the onboard safety driver.

Ian Paulford, of Smart City Consultancy, acted as the safety driver during the event.

Automated shuttle

The vehicle uses onboard LiDAR, obstacle detection, cameras, and a remote monitoring system to move around autonomously.

Ohmio currently offers full-time shuttle services in Milton Keynes and other locations.

Self-driving services have been gradually arriving in Europe, with two robotaxi offerings arriving this year, in Zagreb and London.