Buckle up The southwestern Florida town of Babcock Ranch bills itself as the nation?s first solar-powered town. Now, it can add another big high-tech notch to its belt: The first city to test autonomously driving school shuttle buses.
This fall, the planned community has partnered with Transdev to launch a pilot program for self-driving shuttle buses that can transport up to 12 children at a time.
Like other autonomous shuttles that are popping up across the country, the EasyMile Easy10 Gen II is pod-like vehicle that runs on electricity. The yellow shuttle bus will follow a predetermined path, scooping up children from a designated pick-up area and dropping them off in front of the school. Though the goal is to eventually allow on-demand, door-to-door pickup through an app.
Brian Tietz courtesy of Transdev

Though the pilot program will be tightly controlled, it?s still a wild idea, and one that naturally raises the question: Does a school bus really need to be the testing ground for new and still relatively unproven technology" The answer is probably not. But Transdev says to start, the shuttles will reach turtle-level cruising speed of 8 mph (eventually working its way up to 30 mph), and will have automatic breaking and a safety assistant on board.

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