Here & Now

Driverless Shuttle Makes Appearance In Wisconsin

Shawn Johnson:

We move now from politics to science news and a look ahead, way ahead to the future of transportation. The University of Wisconsin-Madison brought a driverless shuttle to campus this week to give the public a demonstration. Multimedia reporter Marisa Wojcik caught up with the shuttle and spoke with the project’s leaders.

Marisa Wojcik:

By now most of us have seen driverless vehicles in the news, but not many of us have had the chance to see one in person. Students and community members had a chance to see an Autonom shuttle from French manufacturer Navya, a 15-passenger, electric driverless shuttle. The demonstration was meant to show people that driverless vehicles are not so scary.

Jonathan Riehl:

Outreach is really something that I think is critical with autonomous vehicles. There’s a lot of people, if you ask them what they are, they haven’t seen it.

Marisa Wojcik:

UW-Madison’s College of Engineering was one of ten in the country to be federally designated as an automated vehicle proving grounds. Some got to see the shuttle drive itself. But on its second day on the road, it required a pit stop.

Chris Pauly:

We were able to operate the shuttle in fully autonomous mode yesterday and this morning. This afternoon, unfortunately, the shuttle was not able to operate.

Marisa Wojcik:

The vehicle is designed to stop operating when these issues occur. For now, federal regulations require an operator to be onboard at all times.

Man:

Pop this down.

Marisa Wojcik:

But manufacturers are already planning for a different scenario.

Aaron Foster:

So we really designed these vehicles to be ready for the time when we’re not going to have any operators onboard the shuttle so we want them to be as easy to use as possible.

Marisa Wojcik:

Which includes using an Xbox controller to drive the vehicle in the event that it can’t drive itself. The Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory is not only researching the engineering aspects, but other areas, like legal implications, public acceptance and urban planning.

Jonathan Riehl:

It's really campus-wide and it’s trying to bring together a community of researchers who are interested in different problems.

Marisa Wojcik:

Problems like urban food deserts, where the metro service lines don’t reach a certain area. Or for Katherine Corbett, who is blind, a driverless vehicle can mean more independence in transportation.

Katherine Corbett:

In a lot of literature, the future has been — predictions have been made about automated vehicles and self-driving cars. As a person who doesn’t drive, that’s always been kind of a dream of mine.

Marisa Wojcik:

For driverless vehicles on the road, the future is now.

Shawn Johnson:

That was Marisa Wojcik reporting.