How do the “talking” london buses know which stop they e approaching?
The “talking” buses and the computerised bus indicator signs at a growing number of bus stops are all linked to a £116 million GPS system called iBus. So yes, the system does know where a bus is, even if it’s on a diverted route. But the “talking” stop names are recorded by a human voice so even if they were to programme the diversion-route stops into the visual on-board signs, I doubt they’d get new voice-overs recorded unless the diversion was a long-term thing. If you want to know a bit more about how the iBus system works, here are a couple of useful links. Swindon is installing a similar system and has published a nice overview of it all works, here: http://www.silicon.com/publicsector/0,38… and here’s a link to a TfL leaflet showing how iBus is also used to give buses priority at traffic lights:
