People Mover – How far is the technology?
A first answer based on the Navya shuttle in Neuhausen

Auto­no­mous peop­le mover vehi­cles are cur­r­ent­ly gro­wing like mushrooms after a rain. Many firms are pre­sen­ting their con­cepts and road-ready vehi­cles. Even at this year’s CES in Las Vegas, this new type of local trans­por­ta­ti­on was among the key tech­no­lo­gies.

The Navya shut­tle in Neu­hau­sen, Switz­er­land cele­bra­ted its first bir­th­day this month. We came to congra­tu­la­te, took a few rounds in the vehi­cle and ana­ly­zed how far the tech­no­lo­gy real­ly is.

We have three key obser­va­tions to sha­re:

• Pede­stri­ans and irra­tio­nal brea­king are still an issue
  On the short 500 meter cir­cu­lar rou­te the peop­le mover cros­ses 10 cross­walks. When approa­ching the­se, the con­trol dri­ver regu­lar­ly breaks manu­al­ly and pre­emp­tively to ensu­re unam­bi­guous beha­vi­or. Accord­ing to our rese­arch, if the vehi­cle per­for­med the brea­king auto­no­mous­ly, it would break later and more pro­noun­ced which led to an unplea­sant expe­ri­ence for peop­le both out­side and insi­de the vehi­cle. If pede­stri­ans approach from the left, it is exclu­si­ve­ly the con­trol dri­ver per­for­ming the brea­king, as the vehi­cle has dif­fi­cul­ties dis­tin­guis­hing the­se pede­stri­ans across the street from other objects on a lar­ger distan­ce.
  In addi­ti­on, and espe­ci­al­ly in wet con­di­ti­ons, we obser­ve regu­lar pro­blems with the sen­sors causing irra­tio­nal brea­king. The­se can be qui­te pro­noun­ced and shook us more than once. Espe­ci­al­ly with fal­ling lea­ves and lar­ger wet are­as on the street, the vehi­cle per­forms breaks without an obvious rea­son.
• True auto­no­my is some­thing else
  Given the rou­te, and the gene­ral per­for­mance, the vast majo­ri­ty of the rides are not free of dis­en­ga­ge­ments or pre­emp­ti­ve brea­king by the con­trol dri­ver. While a ful­ly auto­no­mous turn is theo­reti­cal­ly pos­si­ble on a dry day with zero pede­stri­ans on the road, the rea­li­ty still requi­res a con­trol dri­ver with his fan­cy gaming con­so­le con­trol­ler (And yes… L2 is for brea­king).
• The public is curious and gene­ral­ly posi­ti­ve
  Despi­te the tech­ni­cal issu­es descri­bed above, the public is curious to take one of the cost-free rides. Given the low top speed of 25 km/h and the pre­sence of a very active and cau­tious con­trol dri­ver, peop­le of all age express that they feel safe in the vehi­cle. With an addi­tio­nal digi­tal dis­play pro­vi­ding more infor­ma­ti­on at the star­ting point of the rou­te, this and many other pro­jects pro­vi­de an important oppor­tu­ni­ty for ear­ly inter­ac­tion with the future of auto­no­mous dri­ving. Con­s­i­de­ring the dis­cus­sions around public accep­tan­ce and adop­ti­on rates, such pro­jects should not be unde­re­sti­ma­te. Given the many tou­rists visi­ting the Rhi­ne falls in clo­se vic­ini­ty, this venue is a good spot to make as many peop­le as pos­si­ble inter­act with this new type of short distan­ce trans­por­ta­ti­on.

You and your busi­ness requi­re an all-embra­ci­ve per­spec­tive on the future of auto­no­mous mobi­li­ty? Do not hesi­ta­te! Get in touch and start the dis­cus­sion – We are loo­king for­ward to sharing our exper­ti­se.