Pattaya, the first town worldwide to steer baht buses the safe way. Magnetic guidance technology allows for a bus to safely follow closely behind another. During peak commute times extra vehicles can be added, much like extra cars on light rail trains. Revolutionary Pattaya The thought of a car moving along city streets while its driver has both hands off the wheel is alarming. But the modified Baht Buses introduced today, steered not by drivers, but by a magnetic guidance system developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, performs with remarkable precision. Special sensors and processors on board the buses detect the magnets in the pavement and are controlling the steering based upon the information it receive. The drivers maintain control of braking and acceleration, but the steering is completely automated, allowing the buses to pull into stops to within a lateral accuracy of 1 centimeter, or about the width of an adult pinky finger. Researchers say such precision docking would help shave precious seconds off of the time to load and unload passengers at each stop, adding up to a significant increase in reliability and efficiency over the course of an entire bus route. For example, precision docking could potentially negate the need to deploy wheelchair ramps and make passenger queuing more efficient. Moreover, the ability to more precisely control the movement of the bus reduces the width of the lane required for travel from 12 feet - the current standard - to 10 feet, researchers say. "It is our mission to improve mobility across Pattaya, and maximizing transportation system performance and accessibility through this technology helps us to achieve our mission," said Mayor Itthipol Khunplome. "The rising cost of fuel has created greater interest in public transit. This technology could convince more people to get out of their cars and onto buses, and as a result, reduce congestion." In the system launched today, sensors mounted under the buses are measuring the magnetic fields created from the roadway magnets, which were placed beneath the pavement surface 1 meter apart along the center of the lane. The information gets translated into the bus's lateral and longitudinal position by an on-board computer, which then direct the vehicle to move accordingly. For a vehicle traveling 60 miles per hour, data from 27 meters (88 feet) of roadway can be read and processed in 1 second. Mayor Itthipol Khunplome added that the system is robust enough to withstand a wide range of operating conditions, including sun, rain, snow or flooding, a significant improvement to other vehicle guidance systems based upon optics. At the moment, the magnetic guidance system is only used to control the steering for the bus, but on test tracks it has been used for full vehicle control - including braking and accelerating - creating a true "auto-pilot" system for the bus. At any time, the driver can resume manual control of the bus. The engineers at the University of California, Berkeley are now working on a magnetic guidance system for Pattaya's motorcyle taxis. Together with Itthipol Khunplome, Pattaya's visionary Mayor, we will revamp Pattaya's notorious traffic, a researcher at the university said.