Italy's Turin Tests Self-Driving Shuttles on Roads

Italy looks set to receive its first self-driving public transportation system soon, with electric-powered shuttles now hitting the roads in Turin as a pilot project for testing. The autonomous vehicle has been developed by French start-up Navya, and can carry up to 14 people (11 seated and 3 standing). However, it will be tested without passengers until October 2022.

The autonomous vehicle can drive in normal urban traffic and use its GPS and other sensors to detect obstacles, cars, bicycles or pedestrians, but during this pilot project, a driver will always be present in order to steer the vehicle if necessary using a joypad. After the tests, the shuttle will be available until March 2023 along a two-kilometre route in the hospital area of Turin.

The shuttle can reach a maximum speed of 25 kmph and has an average battery life of about 9 hours. From October 2022 to March 2023, it will be in service for 6 hours on weekdays and 4 hours on holidays and public holidays, with rides that can be booked through the auTOnomo GTT app, which will be made available soon for Android and iOS devices. The vehicle is also accessible to people with disabilities, thanks to a moving platform allowing people to board the vehicle.

The pilot project in Turin, coordinated by LINKS Foundation and managed by GTT, offers flexible on‐demand public transport (the route, as well as bus times, is predefined but not fixed) on autonomous vehicles. The experimentation takes place as part of SHOW, a project funded by the European Union within the Horizon 2020 programme, which aims to support the transition to sustainable urban transport through the circulation of fleets of autonomous vehicles.