Driverless shuttle pilots: Lessons for automated transit technology deployment

Nesheli, Mahmood Mahmoodi; Li, Lisa; Palm, Matthew; Shalaby, Amer

doi:10.1016/j.cstp.2021.03.010

Cited by 30 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…However, when we examine what cities are learning from the AV pilots, we see that most of the information collected does not address transportation challenges, but instead emphasizes the operations conditions of vehicles and rider perceptions. This is in line with what others have found as well (Steckler et al, 2020;Mahmoodi Nesheli et al, 2021). In all cases we examined, ridership was a key metric that cities collected data on.…”

Section: Public Benefitsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Similarly, Mahmoodi Nesheli et al (2021) review 33 AV shuttle pilot projects from around the world (8 from the U.S.) and find that a small number of pilots operate outside of highly controlled environments and that most are not yet integrated with existing public transit systems, although several plan to do this in the future. They find that while AV pilots have generally received positive feedback, those who have ridden AV shuttle pilots are not likely representative of the broader public, particularly the public that relies on public transit.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They find that while AV pilots have generally received positive feedback, those who have ridden AV shuttle pilots are not likely representative of the broader public, particularly the public that relies on public transit. They therefore recommend that future AV pilot projects move towards operating in more dynamic urban environments, exploring better integration and coordination with existing public transit, and increase accessibility of the pilots to a broader public (Mahmoodi Nesheli et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pilot project purgatory? Assessing automated vehicle pilot projects in U.S. cities

McAslan

Arevalo

King

et al. 2021

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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Pilot projects have emerged in cities globally as a way to experiment with the utilization of a suite of smart mobility and emerging transportation technologies. Automated vehicles (AVs) have become central tools for such projects as city governments and industry explore the use and impact of this emerging technology. This paper presents a large-scale assessment of AV pilot projects in U.S. cities to understand how pilot projects are being used to examine the risks and benefits of AVs, how cities integrate these potentially transformative technologies into conventional policy and planning, and how and what they are learning about this technology and its future opportunities and risks. Through interviews with planning practitioners and document analysis, we demonstrate that the approaches cities take for AVs differ significantly, and often lack coherent policy goals. Key findings from this research include: (1) a disconnect between the goals of the pilot projects and a city’s transportation goals; (2) cities generally lack a long-term vision for how AVs fit into future mobility systems and how they might help address transportation goals; (3) an overemphasis of non-transportation benefits of AV pilots projects; (4) AV pilot projects exhibit a lack of policy learning and iteration; and (5) cities are not leveraging pilot projects for public benefits. Overall, urban and transportation planners and decision makers show a clear interest to discover how AVs can be used to address transportation challenges in their communities, but our research shows that while AV pilot projects purport to do this, while having numerous outcomes, they have limited value for informing transportation policy and planning questions around AVs. We also find that AV pilot projects, as presently structured, may constrain planners’ ability to re-think transportation systems within the context of rapid technological change.

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Section: Public Benefitsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pilot project purgatory? Assessing automated vehicle pilot projects in U.S. cities

McAslan

Arevalo

King

et al. 2021

Humanit Soc Sci Commun

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“…Instead, Zubin et al (2020) concludes that research gaps are found in infrastructure and network design as well as the topic of how to remove human personnel on automated shuttles. In a paper by Nesheli et al (2021) more than 25 ongoing operations were reviewed and lessons learned were summarised. The paper was however not dealing with the operators' own perspective and insight into planning and solving daily issues to keep them up and running.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned from setting up a demonstration site with autonomous shuttle operation – based on experience from three cities in Europe

Anund¹,

Ludovic²,

Caroleo³

et al. 2022

Journal of Urban Mobility

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“…Driverless shuttles are now in a prototyping phase and are being tested via various projects worldwide (Nesheli et al, 2021). The number of low-speed automated shuttle services in the United States is also likely to grow in the coming years (Coyner et al, 2021;Cregger et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Road User Attitudes Toward Automated Shuttle Operation: Pre and Post-Deployment Surveys

Kim

Doerzaph

2022

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual

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Various driverless shuttles have been tested via pilot studies worldwide, as they have the potential to fill gaps in public transportation services. However, we presently lack a complete understanding of how people who share the road with such vehicles perceive the new technology, as most studies to date have surveyed the general public (without direct exposure) or riders of automated shuttles. To inform future deployments of such vehicles on public roadways, researchers at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute operated a low- speed automated shuttle and surveyed both shuttle riders and also non-riders before and after their 3 months of exposure to the shuttle operation. The results suggest that even though experience with, and exposure to, the technology gathered trust and acceptance among road users, shuttle riders had more positive attitudes toward shuttle operations than did non-riders. In addition, many people strongly support rules and restrictions governing shuttle operations on public roadways. Future researchers and policymakers could leverage the survey findings for more successful deployments of automated shuttles on public roadways.

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Driverless shuttle pilots: Lessons for automated transit technology deployment

Cited by 30 publications

References 24 publications

Pilot project purgatory? Assessing automated vehicle pilot projects in U.S. cities

Pilot project purgatory? Assessing automated vehicle pilot projects in U.S. cities

Lessons learned from setting up a demonstration site with autonomous shuttle operation – based on experience from three cities in Europe

Road User Attitudes Toward Automated Shuttle Operation: Pre and Post-Deployment Surveys

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