Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Inverness driverless bus damaged days before launch

Engineers have been brought in to repair the Auto Shuttle electric vehicle.

A driverless vehicle has been damaged at Inverness Campus.
A driverless vehicle has been damaged at Inverness Campus. Image: Jasperimage.

A new driverless vehicle was damaged days before it was due to be launched at the Inverness University of the Highlands and Islands campus.

The Auto Shuttle electric vehicle bus was damaged overnight on Friday into Saturday morning.

It is believed that damage was caused to the shuttle bus driving system and the fencing surrounding the state-of-the-art vehicle.

The new system had been expected to run a test this week, on Tuesday.

Glasgow University is the lead project manager of the Auto Shuttle bus scheme, working closely with HiTrans.

The Auto-Shuttle is a ten-seat passenger vehicle with the ability to operate as a fully automated bus, and can also be used as a manual-driven conventional electric vehicle shuttle.

Driverless bus at UHI Inverness Campus.
A panel appears to have been broken on the driverless bus at Inverness Campus. Image: Jasperimage.

A Police spokesperson confirmed that officers have launched an investigation into damage to the vehicle.

The spokesperson said: “We have received a report and inquiries are at an early stage.”

A spokeswoman for HiTrans said: “HiTrans is very disappointed that this vandalism has occurred.

“This has been reported to the police and we hope to see this incident investigated and the person responsible held to account for their crime.

“Engineers from Aurrigo have assessed the damage and hope to be able to repair the vehicle to allow the trial to commence on Tuesday.’

We have asked the UHI and HiTrans to comment.

Our reporters are working to bring you the latest updates on this developing story.

Please check back later for more and follow The Press and Journal on Facebook and online for breaking news.

Conversation