Autonomous rail rapid transit (ART) is a lidar (light detection and ranging) guided bi-articulated bus system for urban passenger transport.

Automated rapid transit systems (ARTs) can operate independently without the need for a guiding sensor and as a result, they fall under the classification of buses.

Before the announcement by CRRC, optical guided buses have been in use in a number of cities in Europe and North America, including in Rouen as part of Transport Est-Ouest Rouennais, in Las Vegas as a segment of Metropolitan Area Express BRT service (now discontinued), and in Castellón de la Plana as Line 1 in TRAM de Castellón network [es].

[2] The ART is equipped with various optical and other types of sensors to allow the vehicle to automatically follow a route defined by a virtual track of markings on the roadway.

[6] Multi-axle hydraulic steering technology and bogie-like wheel arrangement could allow lower swept path in turns, thus requiring less side clearance.

The higher rolling resistance of rubber tires requires more energy for propulsion than the steel wheels of a light rail vehicle.

However, a different report, by the Australian Railways Association, which supports light rail, said there were reliability questions with ART installations, implying the initial suggested capital cost savings were illusory.

[22] A November 2020 proposal for a trackless tram system in the City of Wyndham, near Melbourne, posited a cost of $AU23.53M per km for roadworks, vehicles, recharge point and depots.

[24][25] The Government of New South Wales considered the system as an alternative to light rail for a line to connect Sydney Olympic Park to Parramatta.

However, concerns were raised that there was only one supplier of the technology,[26] and that the development of "long articulated buses" was "too much in its preliminary phase" to meet the project deadlines.