An autonomous vehicle improving mobility in the countryside: several municipalities in Indre (France) are experimenting until the end of 2022 with an automatic shuttle service presented as a world first. Without ever exceeding 50 km/h, a pink, green and blue van crosses the Brenne and its ponds (in the center of France, south of Tours).
Apart from a few protrusions and sensors, there is nothing to distinguish it from conventional minibuses.
But in the shuttle built by the French start-up Milla, there is no driver. As a matter of safety in the face of technology still under construction, an “operator” still sits behind a steering wheel that turns by itself. For example, it takes control when the shuttle has to pass a badly parked vehicle.
As for the pedals, they sink and rise without touching them, from Mézières-en-Brenne to Martizay, via Paulnay and Azay-le-Ferron. Four stops for a journey of 17 kilometers covered in 36 minutes.
Free for users, the service, set up until December 31, cost nearly 800,000 euros, half of which was invested by the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) as part of of the Autonomous Shuttle Experiments (ENA) program. Users are delighted despite the relative slowness of the electric shuttle and its somewhat abrupt braking.
Source: AFP
An autonomous vehicle improving mobility in the countryside: several municipalities in Indre (France) are experimenting until the end of 2022 with an automatic shuttle service presented as a world first. Without ever exceeding 50 km/h, a pink, green and blue van crosses the Brenne and its ponds (in the center of France, south of Tours). Apart from a few…