In the cities of Sion and Paris, electric self-driving shuttles made by French company Navya are now in service. They promise significant operational savings, and by 2025 10,000 units will be on the road.
There is a subtle red thread connecting the Canton of Valais to Paris. A red thread that travels on four wheels, is fitted with an electric motor and needs no driver. The Swiss region and the French capital are indeed among the first places in the world to rely on self-driving minibuses to meet urban mobility needs. It is a solution driven both by the growing environmental awareness of public administrations and by the need to keep service costs under control.
Self-driving technology as a solution to reduce traffic congestion and improve road safety is nothing new. What does represent a novel interpretation of this technology, however, is the removal of the driver as a means of limiting transport costs. In Switzerland, for example, the idea of a vehicle that moves without a driver has been welcomed as a resource for sparsely populated or hard-to-reach areas, where setting up a conventional scheduled service would have entailed high expenditure. In Sion, in the Canton of Valais, the public transport company CarPostal, the local authorities and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne have therefore joined forces to promote the testing of a self-driving shuttle vehicle that follows a route within the historic town centre, which has until now been poorly served by public transport.
The project, named SmartShuttle, involves the operation of several driverless electric minibuses capable of carrying up to 15 people (11 seated and 4 standing) at a maximum speed initially limited to 20 km/h, set to reach 45 km/h in the future. These shuttles, produced by French company Navya and entirely devoid of any traditional controls, are intended to remain in service for a minimum of two years, so as to provide reliable feedback on the effectiveness of the service. Should the trial prove successful, the Canton of Valais plans to introduce a small fleet of driverless vehicles, designed to complement and enhance the existing public transport network.
Sion leads the way, Paris follows: since the beginning of October, the same shuttle being trialled in Switzerland has been operating in certain areas of the French capital. A vehicle developed in France, but fitted with an Italian "heart", given that the electric motor is supplied by the firm Benevelli of Rubiera, in the province of Reggio Emilia. Credited with a range of 8 hours, the Navya Arma — this being the name of the low-emission minibus — uses a self-driving system capable of detecting obstacles along the route and promises to reduce both air and noise pollution in the most congested areas of the French capital. The first six units have so far been tested in private areas such as airports, hospital clinics, industrial sites, university campuses and amusement parks, since a European regulation permitting their free circulation has not yet come into force. The aim of the Paris administration is to be ready when the EU legislature finally fills this gap, so as to introduce a fleet of autonomous vehicles into the historic centre of the Ville Lumière.
The Navya Arma electric self-driving shuttle promises operational savings in the order of 40 per cent compared with traditional vehicles, making it possible to recoup the initial investment — put at 160,000 euros per unit — in a relatively short time. It is estimated that by 2025, more than 10,000 vehicles of this type will be in circulation across Europe, used for passenger transport. The environment, and quality of life, will be all the better for it.