RATP will launch on Monday a new experiment of a minibus without a driver in Paris, between the Gare de Lyon and Austerlitz, after a test conducted on the banks of the Seine.
Between Gare de Lyon and the Gare d’Austerlitz flows the Seine … Many travelers in transit who have to go from one to the other. The distance is too short to take public transport or a taxi. But long enough to suffer those who borrow the Charles de Gaulle bridge towing their rolling suitcase or carrying their backpacks.
Hence the idea of RATP set up a minibus service without driver on the Charles de Gaulle bridge. Free, this shuttle will enter service from 5pm on Monday and until 7th April on a dedicated track of the work of art.
Up to 12 passengers at 25 km/h
This is a new stage in the experimental deployment of autonomous shuttles by RATP. The first demonstration took place in late September on the banks of the Seine, with an EZ10 company with their vehicle Toulouse Easymile.
The company, in which the industrial giant Alstom announced Thursday it had invested 14 million euros, has developed this electric vehicle without a driver, which can carry up to 12 passengers at 25 km/h.
It is already tested in closed circuit in the Netherlands, Japan, Singapore or California, and is even the subject of an experiment on the road to Helsinki. In total, according to Alstom, “the EZ10 has been deployed on more than 50 sites in 14 countries”.
The idea is gaining ground
In September, the RATP had indicated that in a third step, autonomous shuttles are tested on the Office’s website for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies (CEA) in Saclay in the Essonne.
Lyon has already tested early September its own minibus service without driver. It has two shuttles from Navya Arma, each capable of carrying up to 15 passengers and travel on a journey of 1.3 km in the new Confluence district.
Navya, another French start-up to this sector, said in early January that it would test its vehicles in the downtown Las Vegas (Nevada, western United States).
