This article was originally published under the title “Automated Driving at Scale: Why Public Transportation is Leading the Way” as a Vendor Viewpoint in the Auto Tech Outlook Magazine.
Self-driving vehicles have long captured the public attention, with robotaxis often positioned as the hallmark of future transportation. While these personal-use vehicles continue to attract headlines and investment, the real, scalable benefits of autonomous driving are now emerging in public transportation. Cities worldwide are recognizing that autonomous buses offer a practical and cost-effective solution that addresses the driver shortage, improves road safety, and reduces emissions, delivering tangible value today.
At Imagry, we develop AI-powered, camera-based, HD-mapless automated driving solutions designed for both passenger vehicles and M3 category electric buses. Our software has been operating private vehicles on public roads since 2019. However, it is currently in public transit where our technology is making the greatest immediate impact. By enabling buses to autonomously navigate urban environments safely and efficiently, without the need for high-definition maps, expensive sensors, infrastructure modifications, or dedicated lanes, we are helping cities deploy autonomy where it matters most.
This approach has proven its value in real-world deployments and has earned us industry recognition, including the 2025 Frost & Sullivan Global Customer Value Leadership Award. This honor reflects our commitment to delivering meaningful solutions that maximize return on investment for public transportation operators (PTOs) and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), while reducing total cost of ownership and ensuring operational continuity.
Public Transportation is Ripe for Autonomy
The vision of a city filled with self-driving robotaxis is appealing, but scaling that model presents complex challenges. Regulatory hurdles, limited profit margins and a three-year ROI (if any) due to expensive equipment requirements, and operational inefficiencies (such as driving only in small geo-fenced areas) continue to slow robotaxi deployment.
In contrast, public transportation provides a structured, high-impact environment where autonomous driving can thrive. Existing bus routes, schedules, and defined pickup points allow for easier integration of autonomous technology into an established infrastructure, offering clear benefits for both operators and passengers.
At Imagry, our AI-powered software can easily address varied market sectors (e.g., agriculture, construction, mining, etc.), but we recognize that autonomous buses represent the most scalable and impactful use case today. Our software allows buses to operate on public roads with mixed traffic, providing flexible routing and real-time responsiveness that meet urban transit needs. This is not theoretical. Our autonomous buses are actively operating in the city of Nahariya, Israel, where multiple vehicles serve 21 stops along an 8-km route.
HD-Mapless Technology: Flexibility Across Applications
One of the major barriers to scaling autonomous vehicles has been dependence on high-definition (HD) maps. These pre-prepared maps are costly (mapping the road in a 5cm granularity), require constant updates, need costly and not-always-available high bandwidth communication in the car, create cyber vulnerability, and limit geographic flexibility. Our HD-mapless system removes these barriers, making it ideal for public transit.
Imagry’s technology mimics human perception by using a vision-based sensor suite to interpret the environment dynamically. Eight strategically placed cameras provide a 360-degree view, allowing the vehicle to navigate complex road scenarios, from identifying traffic lights, traffic signs, lanes and pedestrians to reacting to other vehicles and unexpected obstacles.
Our hardware-agnostic approach integrates seamlessly with existing vehicle platforms. With a system cost ranging (currently) from $2,000 to $3,000 per vehicle, and supported by over-the-air (OTA) updates, our solution offers long-term adaptability. This positions us well for mass-market deployment, providing a key advantage for public transportation systems and automotive OEMs.
Meeting the Highest Standards: Regulation and Safety
Public transportation demands the highest safety and regulatory standards, and at Imagry, we ensure that our autonomous buses meet or exceed these expectations.
In Europe, for example, Level 4 (L4) autonomous driving regulations for buses include rigorous NCAP testing, cybersecurity compliance, and operational trials covering at least 100,000 autonomous driven kilometers before buses can operate fully autonomously, without safety drivers. Imagry will be the first autonomous bus provider to meet these extended L4 standards, demonstrating our commitment to safety, compliance, and operational readiness.
These achievements not only support current deployments but also position us to help shape the future of autonomous transit regulation. Following our contribution in formulating the guidelines for autonomous driving in Israel, several other regulatory bodies worldwide have been seeking our expertise. This ensures that our solutions remain aligned with evolving standards, protecting our transport partners’ investments and future-proofing their operations.
Partnerships Driving Global Growth
While Imagry’s technology supports a variety of autonomous driving applications, public transportation remains our most immediate and transformative impact. We work closely with leading Public Transportation Operators (PTOs), automotive OEMs, and Tier 1 suppliers to tailor our solutions to operational realities, from bus fleet requirements to city-specific regulatory environments.