SoylentNews

takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

A company is testing an autonomous electric shuttle bus [lasvegassun.com] on Fremont Street [wikipedia.org] in Las Vegas, and intends to fully deploy shuttles later in the year:

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman took a cruise down Fremont Street Tuesday afternoon that made history. Goodman rode in the first completely autonomous, fully electric shuttle to ever be deployed on a public roadway in the United States. The driverless vehicle — called Arma and developed by the Paris-based company Navya — will be making trips down Fremont Street from today to Jan. 20 as developers test the product. "What a wonderful day for all of us to witness this," Goodman said. "Being the control freak that I am, I was very nervous to get on this vehicle, but it is clean, has beautiful air and moves sort of swiftly but so beautifully down Fremont East."

The vehicle holds a dozen passengers and operates safely at up to 27 miles per hour but will be limited to 12 mph during the trial period. [...] While the trial will last only two weeks, Cervantes says the driverless vehicles could be in full effect by late summer to early fall. "It's a matter of fine-tuning the technology to make sure it's safe," Cervantes said. "The last thing we want is for something to happen." The vehicle uses radar to detect and avoid obstacles in the road, as well as GPS technology to navigate the roads. Keolis, a world leader in public passenger transport, has partnered with NAVYA in the endeavor.

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