It seems the self-driving future is coming far sooner than we might have expected.
The Bishop Ranch- a suburban office park in San Ramon, California will be the first place in the U.S. to use driverless shuttles. The 500-acre office park is home to the headquarters of companies like Chevron, PG&E, AT&T, General Electric and other big corporations. A fleet of self-driving buses will shuttle employees around California’s Bay Area.
The robo buses are designed by a French company called EasyMile, which is a joint venture between carmaker Ligier Group and high-tech company Robosoft. EasyMile has partnered with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority on the pilot project.
The pilot program will start with only two buses that will travel at very slow speeds, around 10-15 miles per hour, along pre-programmed routes known as “virtual tracks.” The shuttle can be made to stop at every station along the way or only when passengers request it.
The EZ10 is designed for 12 passengers. The new shuttle rides not only without a driver, but also it lacks controls of any kind. It has no steering wheel, no gas pedal, and no brakes. The vehicles use high-definition internal mapping software to know their routes and sensors to avoid pedestrians and other obstacles and can adjust course and speed accordingly. The EZ10 is not intended for the open road. It is designed only for enclosed traffic systems such as universities, large business parks and transportation hubs.
Officials from the company said the project is waiting for local approval and the first public trials are set to start next summer. EZ10 shuttles, known as Shared Driverless Vehicles (SDV), are already in use in closed environments in Finland, Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland and those at Bishop Ranch business park would be the first of their kind in the United States.
