Driverless shuttle buses are about to hit the road in Sacramento. Here’s where
Sacramento State students are soon to become test riders for one of the first fully driverless shuttle bus services in the state.
Starting in February, two autonomous shuttle buses equipped with computers and sensors will ferry students, faculty and staff on a mile-long, round-trip route on an internal campus street, dropping them off at designated stops.
The eight-passenger buses, called Olli shuttles, can travel up to 25 miles per hour, but are expected to roll at 5 to 7 miles per hour on a route shared with pedestrians, bicyclists and the school’s Herky (the Hornet) shuttle buses, campus officials said.
The vehicles will have on-board human attendants for an added dose of safety and to answer rider questions about the technology.
Tony Lucas, the university’s transportation head, said attendants can use a joystick to take control of the vehicle if needed. The shuttle also has an emergency handbrake and a red stop button that will shut the motor.
The university, working with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments, recently won a competition among a handful of agencies around Sacramento to use the vehicles for free for three months.
Lucas said the project will give Sacramento State’s transportation engineering students a valuable on-campus laboratory for what is expected to be a dramatic new transportation technology over the coming decades.
The university’s autonomous bus program appears likely to be the second set of robot shuttles in use in the state. The first ones were launched earlier this year in an office park in the East Bay city of San Ramon.
Campus officials have said they hope, at some point, to run autonomous shuttles between the campus and the nearby 65th Street light rail station.
James Corless of SACOG said the campus shuttle tests are part of his group’s efforts to help public agencies improve transportation through use of what he calls “disruptive technologies.”
“An Olli fleet pilot project is a great outcome for Sacramento State and will help showcase the technologies to tackle the transportation challenges of the future,” Corless said.
A representative for LM Industries and Local Motors, the Arizona-based shuttle company, said Sacramento State will get free use of the shuttles for three months, then can lease the vehicles after that if campus officials choose to.
The initial on-board attendants will be supplied by the shuttle company. Students will be trained, though, to serve as attendants as well, Lucas said.
This story was originally published December 13, 2018 at 1:25 PM.