Are We There Yet? AV Shuttles Not Ready for Transit Service, Report Says

Skip Descant, writing for Government Technology, shares details of a new report that assessed two North Carolina pilot programs testing low-speed autonomous vehicles. The conclusion? The vehicles still have “too many limitations” to be effective as transit solutions, including difficulty managing urban traffic settings and slow speeds that top out at about 12 miles per hour.

“These are some of the findings in a July 2024 report on the use of the autonomous vehicle (AV) shuttles by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT). The study examined the use of the vehicles in the city of Cary and at the University of North Carolina (UNC) in Charlotte. Both pilot projects were part of the Connected Autonomous Shuttle Supporting Innovation (CASSI) program,” Descant reports. The two pilots used shuttle technology from Navya Autonom, a French company, and the shuttles were operated by Beep, a Florida-based company.

Despite these less than encouraging results, NCDOT plans to continue into the next phase of the CASSI program, which “could lead the agency to test autonomous systems embedded into more conventional vehicles,” similar to a project in Florida set to begin later this year. Beep and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority will test “14 customized Ford shuttles equipped with Level 4 autonomous technology, capable of traveling up to 37 miles per hour,” according to the Government Tech article.