Autonomous Shuttle Buses | York Region

[Allandale25]

Thought I'd start a thread for this topic.

Permanent autonomous shuttle buses in works for York Region

'It's nimbler, it's cheaper, it's electrified, but it's still unproven,' consortium head says, hopes to launch pilot in two years in Markham

www.newmarkettoday.ca

 

[TJ O'Pootertoot]

Interesting!
I think most of us have understandable scepticism about this stuff but, hey, points for effort.
It's something Markham has been eyeing for a while, particularly as a last-mile (or km, whatever) solution for Langstaff Gateway so it would nice if's actually a practical solution to the issues.

 

[ShonTron]

Hopefully it’s more successful than the Durham Region trial.

Autonomous bus was in manual mode when it crashed in Whitby, Durham police say | Globalnews.ca

In a statement released Wednesday, police said the investigation into the Dec. 16 crash determined the vehicle was in manual mode prior to and at the time of the crash.

globalnews.ca

 

[canarob]

YRT offers really limited GO shuttles, so this could really help.

 

[afransen]

Honestly, this technology is the future of local transit. It may take more time to mature, but it is kind of inevitable.

 

[LemonCondo]

Why are they screwing around with this when they can't even get proper frequencies going on the Viva BRT? Autonomous bendy busses?

 

[drum118]

Shot these ecnobus Gulliver U520 ESP while in Rome this year that have their only routes and look about 3. The best I could tell they had about 100. Never got a chance to ride one. Rome was the only city that we visited that had these buses that were eBus

 

[crs1026]

^Saw those little vehicles all over Italy when we were last there. Invaluable in places where roads are extremely narrow.

I would see those as exactly what GO needs to get past the first/last mile Giant Parking Garage problem….. they would be perfect to penetrate the suburbs around GO stations such as Maple or Markham where 40 foot diesel buses can’t go. Perhaps with a ride-hailing app and dispatching feature. And, being electric, they would be much quieter.

- Paul