From this coming Thursday (22 January) passengers will be able to step aboard a fleet of self-driving buses that have been purchased by the Flemish public transport company De Lijn. A new bus route, route 16, will use the new buses that are the first of their kind to operate on the public highway in Flanders.
De Lijn has been testing the self-driving buses without passengers since September 2025. The vehicles needed to have rode a sufficient number of kilometers on public roads to allow their onboard AI systems to be adequately trained to deal with the range of traffic situations that can arise on the streets of Leuven. The buses always travelled the same route between Leuven Railway Station and the Reeboklaan, in the Leuven suburb of Heverlee.
The test phase has now been completed and De Lijn says that it is ready to allow passengers to use them. The Federal Transport Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Francophone centrist), the Flemish Transport Minister Annick De Ridder (Flemish nationalist), the Mayor of Leuven Mohamed Ridouani (Flemish socialist) and De Lijn’s Director-General Ann Schoubs will attend the launch of the new automated passenger bus service in Leuven on Thursday.