BELLEVUE, Washington 鈥� Just this month, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a driverless van began shuttling students and staff the two-kilometre round trip between a research complex and a distant parking lot and bus stop.
In Las Vegas, an autonomous van launched last year takes curious passengers on a three-block loop between a downtown retail park and Las Vegas Boulevard.
In San Ramon, California, two driverless shuttles began circulating in March through a nearly 600-acre cluster of office parks.
Autonomous shuttle pilot projects are sprouting in myriad locations across the U.S., gauging people鈥檚 reactions and trying to increase their comfort with driverless transit.
Bellevue wants in, too.
The city has hired a manager of transportation technology partnerships who鈥檚 working on the early stages of what officials hope will eventually be a vanpool service of autonomous vehicles, scheduled and summoned by smartphone app.
The goal is to co-ordinate with the region鈥檚 big employers to offer a transit option that can serve suburban areas better than full-size buses or trains. Transportation planners imagine a fleet of self-driving vans that, in the future, could entice commuters to ditch the cars that clog highways each workday.
鈥淎s more and more businesses come here and decide they want to locate in Bellevue and Kirkland, the main issue they face is how to attract employees due to the increasing congestion,鈥� said Steve Marshall, Bellevue鈥檚 manager of transportation technology partnerships.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a convergence of the desire to help employees and reduce congestion as well as advancing technology,鈥� Marshall said.
The city wants major employers to chip in: A fully realized program could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce is working with local autonomous-vehicle evangelists to develop a driverless shuttle pilot program that could, hopefully, launch later this year on a loop in downtown Bellevue.
Last year, Washington Gov.聽Jay Inslee issued an executive order that allows driverless vehicles to test-drive on Washington roads, even without a human behind the wheel.
And this year, the legislature passed a law requiring the state transportation commission to set up a work group to develop policy recommendations the state should consider for autonomous vehicles.
The group will look at issues such as how autonomous vehicles should be registered and insured, cybersecurity of vehicles and how roadways and traffic management might change to accommodate them.
鈥淭his effort is required because robot cars are coming, but robot policymakers are not,鈥� the new law says.
When exactly the robot cars are coming to Bellevue isn鈥檛 clear.
John Milbrath, the vice-president of AAA Washington who is spearheading the Bellevue chamber鈥檚 efforts, said the chamber hopes to have a pilot shuttle project operating this fall.
Milbrath envisions a setup similar to some of the other pilot projects around the U.S. 鈥� a two- to three-km loop in downtown Bellevue, running limited hours, that would move people between the downtown transit centre and nearby workplaces and restaurants.
The chamber wouldn鈥檛 own the shuttles, but has sent out feelers to autonomous-vehicle makers with hopes of leasing them.
That鈥檚 similar to the system launched this month at the University of Michigan.
Two shuttles run on a two-km loop, ferrying commuters between far-flung parking lots and a research complex. Each one holds 11 passengers and has no driver, or even a steering wheel.
Passengers are essentially guinea pigs. The university is surveying passengers and videotaping the shuttles 鈥� both internally and externally 鈥� to see how people react to driverless vehicles. Are they excited? Nervous? Wary? Intrigued?
鈥淭he point is for us to learn more about user trust over time,鈥� said Susan Carney, communications director for MCity, the university鈥檚 autonomous-vehicle research centre. 鈥淒oes it become like getting on a bus, where it鈥檚 no big deal and people just sit down? The comfort level of consumers is critical data.鈥�
In San Ramon, near San Francisco, a public-private partnership has teamed up to launch a similar pilot project at Bishop Ranch, a massive business park with about 30,000 workers.
Two driverless shuttles will begin carrying passengers within a month, Randy Iwasaki, director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority, said.
The goal is eventually to shuttle passengers from one central station in the business park to their workplace 鈥� rather than have full-size buses circumnavigate the complex 鈥� moving transit passengers that difficult 鈥渓ast mile鈥� to their destination.
鈥淭he idea here is testing this technology as a first- and last-mile solution,鈥� Iwasaki said. 鈥淚f it works in San Ramon, conceivably it works across the U.S. in suburban applications.鈥�
Bellevue wants to develop a fleet of shuttles 鈥� eventually electric and autonomous 鈥� to function like King County Metro鈥檚 vanpool program, but with more flexibility.
The city is applying for a federal grant 鈥� the not-so-elegantly named Advanced Transportation and Congestion Management Technologies Deployment Program 鈥� hoping for $6 million to $12 million US to聽develop an app and plan the project.
The shuttles would serve areas that aren鈥檛 dense enough to be reliably served by transit and where driving alone to work remains the norm.
鈥淗ow do you figure out how to get people to work in nontraditional ways?鈥� Marshall said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been working with large employers to try to figure out how we can set up a demonstration project.鈥�
He ultimately foresees a fleet of hundreds of vans, to complement Metro鈥檚 program, which already is the largest in the U.S.. Instead of riding with the same van and same group of riders each day, you could book a ride through an app, switching times on days when you have to work late, or leave early.
And while the project may be years away, they still think it can聽be here before bus rapid transit arrives on Interstate 405 in 2024.
ACES Northwest Network, a group devoted to promoting autonomous- and electric-vehicle technology, is working with Bellevue and the Bellevue chamber to try to push both projects along.
鈥淭he long term is a five- to seven-year buildout that鈥檚 going to take hundreds of millions of dollars, but we believe employers are going to step up,鈥� said Bruce Agnew, director of ACES Northwest.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really designed to help those workers that have an extraordinary commute and have no option today other than a single-occupancy vehicle.鈥�
