One of the main complaints about the performance of the bus systems is the time lost at
recurrent stops along the route, that results in a low bus speed service. Among the potential
measures to speed up the bus service, the introduction of the Autonomous Driving Modular
Bus, able to adjust the transport unit by coupling or decoupled pods, will represent a new
paradigm in the provision of service. This concept is able to maintain high stable cruising
speeds to the transport unit, decoupling only one pod with passengers that may alight at the
next stop. This paper analyze the potentialities of this concept in terms of user travel times
and operationg cost. This work also features the formulation and analytical models to
calculate the performance and oeprational variables, implementing them into two existing
bus lines in Barcelona.
