Six Year 6 students from Trumpington Meadows Primary School got a ride around the Cambridge Biomedical Campus on the Connector autonomous bus this week. 

The self-driving bus – one of three in a trial by the Greater Cambridge Partnership – took the students on an exclusive trip to show them how the bus works and explain the technology behind it. 

One of the students said: "It was really exciting. The coolest thing is that it rides by itself - the driver drives the bus without his hands!"

The free-to-use bus has been in operation in west Cambridge since June 2025, with another two larger buses rolled out in December 2025 to link Trumpington and Babraham Park & Rides with the Cambridge Biomedical Campus. The buses have already carried over 2,000 passengers, as part of the trial to explore whether autonomous buses could be part of the transport solution for Cambridge in the future.

The Connector project is funded by UK Government, as part of the CAM Pathfinder Programme. CAM Pathfinder is delivered by the Department for Business and Trade’s Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) team, in partnership with Innovate UK and Zenzic.

Designed and built in the UK, the Enviro100AEV electric autonomous bus being used in the latest stage of the trial, recently won ‘Vehicle of the Year’ at the Self-Driving Industry Awards 2025. The bus integrates AI and high-performance computing with radar, Lidar and cameras to deliver fully automated driving. The buses are built by Alexander Dennis and equipped with an SAE level 4 automated drive system by Fusion Processing Ltd. The vehicles are supported by trained safety drivers at all times.

The Connector trial is being delivered by the Greater Cambridge Partnership, together with partners Fusion Processing, Alexander Dennis, dRISK, Whippet, and Anthrometric.