This study presents the development of an automatic passenger counting system for public buses using YOLOv8 based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). The system detects and counts passengers in real-time to optimize bus capacity and enhance operational efficiency. Results indicate that the system achieves high accuracy in the front camera view (confidence score of 0.82). However, in the rear camera view the accuracy slightly decreases (confidence score of 0.76) due to object overlap, emphasizing the importance of proper camera placement. The system offers potential improvements in bus capacity management, reduced operational costs, and enhanced passenger comfort. These findings contribute to advancing smarter and more efficient public transportation systems.