Will there soon be more of a pilot on line 393 ? The RATP has announced, Friday, October 19, want to circulate as early as next year of the stand-alone buses, with passengers on board, on this line that connects Thiais Bonneuil-sur-Marne, in the Val-de-Marne (94).
In collaboration with the regional authority of Ile-de-France Mobility, RATP aims to offer a ” playing field for all makers of buses, in real conditions and with a true commercial service “, explained the director of innovation for the group, Marie-Claude Dupuis :
” What we hope to do (…), this is to test all the prototypes, with different levels of autonomy. “
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“We’re not going to let go of a bus stand-alone in nature”
These tests, which will be carried out with standard buses of 12 meters, will be used to ” control the performance of the autonomous vehicle permit to gain in performance and security.” The tests will be able to go up to total automatism, in particular thanks to the fact that this line is almost isolated from the rest of the movement throughout its course.
However, a driver will remain present to board. “We’re not going to let go of a bus stand-alone in nature like that, without caution,” said Marie-Claude Dupuis.
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The RATP has already transported more than 80,000 people in various experiments of shuttles autonomous, in Paris, in Austin (United States), in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) and in Brussels. The group is also interested in the automation of the maneuvers of the vehicles in its deposits. In march, he had made the demonstration of this experiment, which takes advantage of the latest innovations in the field of artificial intelligence and robotics in the areas of recognition of shape, the 3D visualization and command control and planning.
For his part, Transdev has put into circulation two electric minibuses autonomous within the business park Icade, Rungis (Val-de-Marne), france, mid-September. Over 1.2 km, they pass through junctions in the same way as conventional vehicles, buses and pedestrians. At Sion, in Switzerland, shuttles autonomous Navya circulate in the city centre since June of 2016.
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