Keolis Statement on Autonomous Vehicle Launch and Incident in Las Vegas

AutoShuttle-Inline

On Tuesday, November 7, Keolis and our partners at AAA introduced the first self-driving autonomous shuttle to operate in North America. We introduced the shuttle in Las Vegas with a great deal of excitement with the participation of the Mayor of Las Vegas, AAA, the Regional Transportation Commission and our Keolis team. Danica Patrick and Penn & Teller were part of the introduction. All went well and then 15 minutes before the conclusion of the event a semi-truck backed into the autonomous shuttle which was at a stop.  To clarify, the shuttle did NOT crash into the semi-truck. Fortunately, no injuries resulted from the incident and there was little damage to the shuttle. Ultimately the driver of the semi-truck was found responsible for the minor incident. Here is a statement from the City of Las Vegas citing driver error on the part of the semi-truck driver – http://cityoflasvegas.tumblr.com/post/167279971383/the-autonomous-shuttle-was-testing-today-when-it/amp

Keolis/NAVYA have not had any previous accidents after thousands of hours of autonomous shuttle testing and live operations.

Here is a video that summarizes the situation.