While most of the attention is focused on self-driving vehicles for public highways, driverless shuttles will soon be coming to resorts, theme parks and other private spaces. Andrew Hennigan reports

Following a recent high-profile fatal accident involving a Tesla being driven in ‘autopilot’ mode, lawmakers are in no hurry to allow fully autonomous vehicles on public roads outside of experimental programmes, postponing the long-awaited disruption of the transport industry.

Yet almost unnoticed, the same technology is coming to driverless shuttles - small, autonomous electric vehicles aimed at what transport industry calls the ‘last mile’. Even before they are legally allowed to operate on public roads, the same shuttles can already be used in private areas like resorts, theme parks and transport hubs. The best part is that they are already available today and can be deployed quickly.

Among the early pioneers in this new field are Local Motors, creators of the ‘Olli’ driverless shuttle, based in the USA. In the Netherlands we have WePods, makers of a vehicle by the same name. And in France there are two: Navya, makers of the ‘Arma’ and EasyMile, makers of the ‘EZ10’.

Most of these vehicles are strikingly similar, all looking like a roughly symmetrical minibus with a central double door on one side. They are all electrically powered, silent, emission-free and completely driverless. Because they rely on autonomous vehicle technology they require no specific infrastructure like tracks or wires in the roadway. All they need is a charger for the battery. Some can be summoned by users with a smartphone app, all can be monitored and sometimes controlled remotely by a fleet manager using a laptop or tablet.

One of the obvious benefits of a driverless shuttle is the cost benefit; no need to pay a driver to operate a vehicle 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. There are other advantages – to improve safety. “Where a human driver could be distracted by a text message or miss a vehicle in a blind spot, Olli is aware at all times,” says Jonathan Garrett, Product Manager at Local Motors. “Its sensors can see 360-degrees around the vehicle and it doesn’t get distracted by trying to find a song to put on the radio”.

New innovative services

Driverless shuttles can also work with other systems to add new features and functionalities that improve the customer experience. Knowing schedules of local events, for example, recommendations can be made based on real-time data. They can also help to provide a better service for the hearing, vision and mobility impaired community, providing a choice of visual and voice-operated user interfaces. Driverless shuttles can also allow operators to rethink the way they move people.

“The fact that it’s electric and you have no driver allows a new business model,” says Diego Isaac, Marketing & Communication Manager at Navya. “For example, at a nuclear plant at Civaux in France, one traditional bus has been replaced by six Navya Arma vehicles. Not only does this improve service, the frequency of passage is now five minutes instead of 15, so it represents important productivity gains.

For operation on private property, driverless shuttles need to have a precise map of the local area, which is usually generated by the supplier of the vehicles or their mapping partner. Once the map has been defined, the vehicles can work autonomously, providing either an on-demand service or following a regular route. Like other self-driving vehicles, these shuttles also learn from experience.

Vendors of driverless shuttles mostly offer them for sale or lease. Navya focuses on selling the Arma shuttles, while EasyMile offers both sell and lease options for their EZ10. One exception is Local Motors, which has chosen a subscription model for the Olli.  “Rather than selling customers a vehicle that will depreciate over time, customers can return them to us for upgrades and improvements as technology advances,” says Garrett.

Eventually self-driving cars, trucks and buses will cause the biggest disruption in road transport since motor vehicles replaced horses.  But while we are waiting for that to happen we can already enjoy the benefits of self-driving technology off the public roads in private resorts, theme parks and other recreational spaces. Vehicles are already available to order and the short time-to-installation means that they could be running on a new site already this year.