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121 REPORT APPENDIX C: SAV PILOTS This section reviews AV technologies being proposed and piloted across the United States and internationally. Today, the majority of SAV pilots are targeting SAE Level 4 automation, in which a human operator does not need to control the vehicle if it is operating in a suitable ODD. The ODD in these use cases is defined by key roadway characteristics (i.e., roadway types and speed limits) and roadway conditions (e.g., weather conditions, time of day) an AV is designed to operate in (USDOT, 2017). For this reason, the ODD may be more important than the level of automation when discussing differences between SAV pilots. PILOTS Around the world, numerous pilots are pairing automation with shared mobility. Many of these pilots implement low-speed, automated shuttles that can be called on demand or operate on a fixed route in a controlled environment. A few commercial services offer on-demand mobility in a manner similar to TNCs (also known as ridehailing and ridesourcing). Since 2017, several SAV pilots have emerged across the United States. While companies have continued to launch SAV pilots, industry expectations for consumer facing SAV services without a safety driver have faced delays. Cruise, a private AV technology provider, planned to launch a commercial SAV service by the end of 2019; however, the company has delayed the launch and has not announced a new launch date. Teslaâs Elon Musk stated the company would have a million SAVs on the road by 2020. Musk has since acknowledged that this timing may be incorrect (LeBeau, 2019). Waymo was expected to roll out thousands of AVs to its fleet of around 600 vehicles, and this development is now expected to begin in 2020 (Wiggers, 2019). The assessment conducted in this research reviews the continuously operating SAV pilots as of December 2019 in the United States and classifies them according to whether the pilot is: 4. Serving passengers or testing only, 5. Operating on public or private roads, and 6. Using a low-speed shuttle or a conventional vehicle. Temporary demonstrations or pilots that have ceased operations and those that do not carry passengers (or are very close to carrying passengers) are not included in this assessment. The SAV pilots are classified using these characteristics because they measure how close each pilot may be to deployment and can inform the use cases that the pilot operators are targeting. Broadly, the SAV pilots currently underway can be classified into two types: pilots operating on private roads and pilots operating on public roads. In many cases, AVs on private roads are not subject to state and federal regulations. However, these classifications may evolve as services advance from testing to deploying services on public rights-of-way. The SAV pilots operating on private roads and in planned communities are typically low-speed (under 30 mph) deployments operating in controlled environments. These pilots often focus on serving specific markets, such as office parks, housing developments, retirement communities, and universities. The other main group of SAV pilots is operating on urban streets, typically using conventional vehicles equipped with AV technology to navigate their surroundings and traffic (Stocker and Shaheen,
122 REPORT 2018).Table 21 and Table 22 list pilots underway and summarize important attributes, such as the vehicle type and ODD. Table 21. Select SAV Conventional Pilots in the US Operators Location ODD Description Aptiv/Lyft Las Vegas, NV Public roads and city streets Through a commercial pilot project accessed through the Lyft app, 20 SAVs are servicing popular destinations on the Las Vegas strip (Korosec, 2019). AutoX San Jose, CA Public roads and city streets AutoX, an AV startup testing in California, launched a grocery delivery pilot program in San Jose in 2018 (Green, 2018). In June 2019, AutoX began accepting Early Rider applications for its SAV pilot service, xTaxi, and transported its first customer (AutoX Team, 2019). Cruise/GM San Francisco, CA Public roads and city streets In 2017, Cruise launched its pilot, âCruise Anywhere,â an SAV service for its employees to use for pre- selected destinations in San Francisco, California. Cruise intended to launch a commercial SAV offering in 2019. The company has since announced it will not be deploying a commercial offering in 2019 and has not announced a new target date (Marshall, 2017; Felton, 2018). Mercedes- Benz/ Bosch San Jose, CA Public roads and city streets In December 2019, Mercedes-Benz and Bosch launched an SAV service in San Jose, California. The SAVs transport passengers in S-class vehicles on a fixed route between West San Jose and the downtown area. A select group of people has access to an app through which rides can be booked (Hawkins, 2019). nuTonomy and Lyft Boston, MA Public roads and city streets NuTonomy has been testing its vehicles in the Seaport neighborhood of Boston since 2017. In June 2018, the vehicles were approved for testing city-wide. In December 2017, nuTonomy partnered with Lyft to provide rides on their AVs through the Lyft app; however, NuTonomy no longer offers this service in Boston. Since 2018, the fleet has slightly expanded and is still operational as of 2019 (Locklear, 2018; Lyft, 2017). Via, Hyundai, and PonyAI Irvine, CA Public roads and city streets Via has recently signed a partnership with Hyundai and Pony.ai to form BotRide, a TNC service that is operating SAVs on public roads. As of November 2019, BotRide will operate a shared TNC service in Irvine, CA (Pony.ai, 2019). Voyage The Villages, San Jose, CA Private roads/ planned communities Voyage operates three SAVs at The Villages retirement community in San Jose, serving 15 miles of road. It has operated in San Jose since 2017 (Camerona, 2017; Voyage, 2019).
123 REPORT Operators Location ODD Description Waymo Phoenix, AZ Public roads and city streets Waymo launched the Early Rider program in early 2017, allowing select Phoenix, Arizona residents to request rides in their automated minivans. Waymo has since launched its commercial SAV service, Waymo One. As of December 2019, Waymo One serves over 1,500 riders every month in the metro Phoenix area. The company plans to pilot new features and capabilities in 2020 as well as expand ridership (Barr, 2018; Szymkowski, 2019).
124 Table 22. Select SAV Low-Speed Shuttle Pilots in the US Operators Location ODD Description EasyMile*/ Virginia Tech Transportation Institute Blacksburg, VA Public roads and city streets Researchers at the VTTI and North Carolina A&T State University will use an EasyMile EZ10 shuttle to evaluate whether AV shuttles can improve public transit access for vulnerable road users, such as older adults and people with disabilities. The shuttle will operate on a fixed route between a local transit stop and a stop on the VTTI campus. The pilot is scheduled to last one year, from May 2019 to May 2020 (Deekens, 2019). Local Motors â Olli, IBM National Harbor, MD, Germany Public roads and city streets With a 3-D printed, âcrowd-fundedâ design, Olli has had their shuttles in the D.C. area streets since 2016. In October 2019, Maryland granted Local Motors a permit to expand its testing from a 1.5-mile track onto public roads on the outskirts of National Harbor (Graham, 2019; Local Motors, 2018; Warren, 2016). May Mobility Detroit, MI; Grand Rapids, MI; Providence, RI Public roads and city streets May Mobility currently operates three SAV pilots with its six-seater shuttles. In December 2019, the company raised $50 million in a round of financing with the largest investor being Toyota Motor Corporation (Bigelow, 2019). Optimus Ride Boston, MA; South Weymouth, MA; Brooklyn, NY Public roads and city streets Optimus Ride has been testing in Boston since 2017. Optimus Ride now provides SAV services to the Union Point development in South Weymouth and the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York City (Etherington, 2017; Hawkins, 2019). *EasyMile still lists Babcock Ranch (FL) and Bishop Ranch (CA) as current pilot programs; however, employees at each community stated the pilots were no longer operational. In addition to the purpose of AV pilots (e.g., supporting public transit service, offering transportation options to different communities) ODDs are important components to AV operations. A few important ODDs with AV pilots include: ⢠Closed-campus operations: Many pilots are serving passengers or members of a closed- campus community, such as a university, workplace, or retirement community. ⢠Current public operations: Waymo launched a commercial SAV service in the Phoenix area in December 2018. Initially, the program was only available to former members of the Early Rider program. Now, members of the public can sign up for the Waymo One service. Once accepted off the waitlist, they can request rides through an app. In December 2019, Waymo expanded the service through a new iOS app (Ringle, 2019). ⢠Emphasis on temperate climates: US SAV pilots have largely emphasized coastal and sunbelt (e.g., California, Arizona, and Florida) deployments. However, in the next few years, more AV pilots will likely test vehicles in less favorable weather conditions. A few companies are currently testing vehicles in winter conditions. May Mobility has been testing its shuttles in Detroit through a pilot program since mid-2018, and EasyMile began a temporary winter pilot with its EZ10s in Minnesota in late 2017 that has since been completed (MnDOT, 201; Stocker and Shaheen, 2019).
125 REPORT Other than Waymoâs AV testing efforts that began in 2012, most SAV pilots have been active since 2018 (about half have commenced piloting in 2018). Several SAV pilots in major US communities launched during late 2016 and early 2017 (e.g., Waymo in Phoenix and nuTonomy/Lyft in Boston). For the most part, these programs are making incremental improvements and slowly expanding the areas served during the pilot phase. At least three commercial SAV services have launched since 2018 including Lyft and Aptiv in May 2018, Waymo One in December 2018, and Pony.ai in November 2019. Given these developments, more SAV pilots may emerge soon. In the mid- to long-term (10 to 20 years), local SAV programs may gain a larger market share of US passenger-miles than their low-speed counterparts (Stocker and Shaheen, 2018). As shown in this analysis, large automakers and technology companies are at the early stages of developing SAVs for local or regional deployments. On the other hand, smaller players may continue to target niche markets and use cases allowing for quicker SAV deployment due to specially designed vehicles that do not need to function across a wide range of environments (Stocker and Shaheen, 2018), Potential Developments In October 2019, Waymo announced that it would begin removing safety drivers from behind the wheels of its Early Rider program. However, the vehicles in its commercial SAV service, Waymo One, still operate with test drivers (Hawkins, 2019). For many companies, it is not clear when they will begin removing test staff from their vehicles, and there is no standardized guidance for when safety engineers should be removed from a vehicle. In July 2019, Uber released its SDV safety case framework in a bid to provide transparency and inform voluntary standard-setting efforts. The SDV safety case framework provides a graphical representation of the companyâs safety argument for AV testing and deployment (Uber ATG, 2019). Many companies testing AVs are also developing remote operations capabilities, allowing a remote human operator to take control of an AV in the event of a malfunction or emergency (Stocker and Shaheen, 2018).
