Students and members of the public will be able to take a spin in an autonomous shuttle next week at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The university, through its College of Engineering and its efforts leading the Wisconsin Automated Vehicle Proving Grounds (WiscAV), is working to make Wisconsin a leader in driverless testing and research. To highlight the work the university is doing around autonomous vehicles, it's holding driverless shuttle rides provided by French company Navya. Rides will take place on campus April 24 and 25 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Trips will start at 1630 Linden Drive and go in a loop covering Linden, Elm, Observatory and Babcock drives, the university said in a news release.
Researchers from the College of Engineering will be at the event to discuss their work in the burgeoning industry.
“A big part of our work as the proving grounds — especially as a more public-based, university-based proving grounds compared to the private test tracks — is getting people comfortable with this new technology that’s coming very, very fast, whether agencies or regulators are ready for it or not,” said Peter Rafferty, one of the leaders of WiscAV.
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Transportation designated the UW campus as one of 10 U.S. sites that would serve as a grounds for driverless vehicle testing.
Despite the excitement and promise surrounding autonomous vehicles, the futuristic technology doesn't come without controversy. In fact, a public driverless shuttle test at UW, scheduled for last November, was cancelled when a Navya vehicle backed into a shuttle in downtown Las Vegas the week before.
More recently, an Uber driverless vehicle killed a woman in Arizona last month when the car failed to stop while she was in the crosswalk. The first reported autonomous vehicle-related death occurred in 2016, when a Tesla Model S driving in autopilot mode didn't detect an 18-wheel truck and drove full speed under the trailer, killing the driver.
But the benefits of fully functioning driverless technology are clear. There were more than 40,000 vehicle deaths in the U.S. in 2017, a figure that would almost certainly be reduced with a wide rollout of autonomous vehicles.
We're likely many years away from mass adoption of driverless cars. But one thing that's certain is UW is among a handful of institutions working to bring this technology safely to market.
