Would You Ride a ‘Driverless’ Bus? One City Considering Them
So much as been said about the driverless car efforts being made by Google and others. But now, it appears one U.S. city is considering driverless shuttle buses.
According to CBS Sacramento, the city of West Sacramento is 'kicking the tires' on a possible fleet of small shuttle buses that would operate much like a driverless car.
A company called TransDev, who develop what are commonly called autonomous vehicles, did a presentation for city officials on Tuesday, showing off a small prototype bus called the EV-10. TransDev is an international transportation company, who already provide mass transit vehicles.
As described by company officials, it's like a train, but runs on virtual tracks. Apparently the routes the buses would take are programmed into it's computer guidance system, and away you go.
The electric powered vehicles would have a run life of about ten hours, some of which would depend upon climate conditions, whether heat or AC is needed. The vehicle runs between 8 and 15 miles per hour, and would be used to transport as many as 12 people to various destinations along the city's waterfront area.
No word on whether the city is going to bite on the $200,000 price tag.