This monster of public transportation is actually three buses chained together into a sort of Vehicular Centipede. It’s nearly 100 feet long, fits 256 passengers, and — if you believe the institute that developed it — is no harder to drive than a regular 40-footer. So basically, it’s a subway train minus the complicated underground infrastructure. Even better, Buszilla is a hybrid that can go up to five miles on battery power alone.
This Uberbus was designed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems in Dresden, Germany; the institute wanted to build a vehicle that would have the capacity of a train but be maneuverable on surface roads. Anyone can wire three buses together, but the important design feature here is the computerized multi-axis steering system, which makes this behemoth as easy to drive as a normal-sized bus (even in reverse!).
The problem, according to the institute, is that it’s not clear how a 98-foot bus will affect city traffic. The bus will be hitting the streets of Dresden in October for a trial run, so I guess we’ll find out if it’s safe for humans and Busosaurus Rex to coexist.
Update: I originally said, in the article and headline, that the bus could fit 265 passengers, but 256 is the correct number. It is probably no mystery how that happened.
