Improving urban mobility through self-driving electric shuttle
About this good practice
The experience illustrated herein aimed at testing possible transport services based on the use of driverless electric shuttle. The initiative falls within the Alto Adige Province and Merano municipality strategies to introduce innovative modalities of public transport, complementary to other initiatives more related to private transport means.
The mission can be summarised, in short, as improving urban mobility through self-driving shuttles, by developing solutions for the mobility of the first and last mile – (both for people and goods).
A shuttle with fifteen seats - eleven seated and four standing - but no steering wheel for the driver, who is not there. This is achieved by artificial intelligence assisted by seventeen satellites and a wealth of sensors and cameras. Thanks to these, the small electric self-driving shuttle, produced by a French company, has been able to read the route and "notice" the presence of sudden and unexpected obstacles.
In order to carry out this experiment, the route had to be completely cordoned off and no other vehicles or users allowed to circulate during the trial period, using barriers rented from an external provider.
Resources needed
Merano test was supported by "Mentor" project, Interreg V/A Italy-Switzerland, covering € 40.000 (vehicle hire, logistic and management).
Internal &external staff support were required for the event. A communication stand and a serigraphic application onto the personalised shuttle bus for € 4.500.
Evidence of success
A survey during the test provided interesting innovative information to evaluate:
1) respondents’ interest in new technologies (autonomous driving, Artificial Intelligence, IoT, 5G etc.) – Medium & High M&H 70,2%
2) degree of confidence in autonomous driving: before the on-board test = M& H 54,9% - after the on-board test = M& H 94,9%
4) interest towards new mobility services = M&H 76,9%
5) related doubts/questions
6) reasons for people not being interested in taking the test drive
Potential for learning or transfer
Possible replication requires smaller lanes, possible travel in spaces shared with pedestrians/cyclists and the support by public interest, sponsoring similar projects testing driverless application.
Based on this one-off initiative Bolzano Province foresees a follow-up standardised service provision in future projects.
An encouraging aspect is that after the test drive, confidence in driverless technology (and the vehicle in general) improved considerably.
Amongst perplexities and doubts:
- possible loss of employment by drivers
- security against hacker attacks
- inappropriate behaviour on board
- inadequate attention to availability of municipal mobility "on demand".
The Smart Road Decree was revised to allow these vehicles to be tested on road and thus create the conditions for their future use for on-demand transport services.
For more information:
NOI “Nature of Innovation” (in-house public company of Bolzano Province) -
Dott. Roberto Cavaliere
[email protected]
Further information
Documents
PP4_Good Practice- DriverlessElectricShuttle -Roberto Cavaliere.pdf
Presentation given by Roberto Cavaliere (NOI) during the eBussed partnership event in Utrecht (NL) on 30th March 2022.
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
NOI “Nature of Innovation”