One day into CES in Las Vegas, a Central Virginia startup had big news to share.
Blacksburg-based autonomous technology provider Torc Robotics has signed a partnership with international transit company Transdev on an autonomous shuttle platform.
Torc is licensing its self-driving software for the i-Cristal self-driving shuttle bus, which soon will be tested on public roads in France. Transdev is providing its supervision system, connected infrastructure and client application to the vehicle.
The objective of the partnership, according to the firms, is to integrate fleets of autonomous i-Cristal shuttles into existing Transdev public transportation networks.
“Our partnership brings together two companies with a similar vision for the future of autonomous mobility,” Torc CEO Michael Fleming said in a statement. “We believe that shared mobility will be one of the cornerstone applications that lead the way to mass adoption of self-driving consumer vehicles.”
The i-Cristal electric shuttles are classified as "fully autonomous in some areas," according to a release, and operate without a steering wheel or pedals.
The shuttle was first unveiled in September 2018 by Transdev and Lohr, a French vehicle manufacturing company. It has a maximum capacity of 16 passengers.
The partners have already begun testing on closed courses, and testing on public roads will begin after obtaining safety authorizations. After those are secured, they will launch public service trials in two locations in France.
Torc has been developing self-driving vehicle technology since 2005 in on-road and off-road applications, most recently implementing its technology in Lexus RX and Chrysler Pacifica vehicles.
Transdev operates in 20 countries and provides 11 million passenger trips per day. The company says it has transported 3.5 million passengers in autonomous shuttles so far, in Australia, Canada, France, Netherlands and the U.S.
Elsewhere in the autonomous vehicle industry, Waymo launched one of the nation's first commercial self-driving services in Arizona last month, and GM plans to launch a similar service this year.
Here's the video released by Transdev and Torc at CES19:
