The Daily Telegraph

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First driverless pods to travel public roads arrive in the Netherlands
The Daily Telegraph

The first self-driving electric shuttle for use on public roads has been delivered to the Netherlands. The « WEpod » will take passengers between the two towns of Wageningen and Ede in the province of Gelderland from November.

Autonomous public transportation does exist in other parts of the world, such as the ParkShuttle bus in Rotterdam, the Heathrow Pod in London and the LUTZ Pathfinder in Milton Keynes, which run on special single trajectory lanes, or in pedestrianised areas. The WEpods in Gelderland will drive on regular roads amongst public traffic.

The WEpod team intend to equip the vehicle with additional technical equipment such as cameras, radar, laser and GPS to track the environment the vehicle will travel in. According to Joris Ijsselmuiden, a researcher at Wageningen University which is testing the pods, the vehicles will also be equipped with multiple cameras. The cameras are used to map landmarks, which is used as an alternative navigation tool when GPS accuracy is masked by road obstacles like trees.

The WEpod can be booked using an app which will allow passengers to reserve a seat and specify their starting points and their destinations. Vehicles are expected to select their itineraries independently.

The vehicles will initially ride on a fixed route, but it is expected to expand to more routes and other regions in the Netherlands from May 2016 onwards.

Pendant qu’ailleurs on est en train d’inventer une nouvelle forme de transport, ici un veut interdire Uber et on défend des technologies archaïques de transport en commun…