The French provider of autonomous e-shuttles has launched one of its vehicles in Belgium.
In the commune of Han-sur-Lesse in Belgium drives since yesterday at 10 o’clock an autonomous e-shuttle of the manufacturer Navya out France on the public roads. This is a first for Belgium – it is the first Autonomous E-Shuttle that operates on the public road.
The planning and organization of this comes from the Institut Vias and the Mobility Minister of Belgium: François Bellot. On the first trip, the Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was present. The mission is a test and will be conducted over the next few weeks.
A previously run test was related to a closed area. This previous test took place last year. An amendment to the Highway Code was made for the current test on the public road.
The test track for the Autonomous E-Shuttle is just 500 meters and connects the bus parking lot with the Caves of Han. This is a tourist attraction and so the bus is also intended for tourism. In the future, the distance could be extended by one kilometer to 1.5 kilometers.
How successful such buses can be, you can see in Bad Birnbach in Germany. There are now two shuttles to the cityscape and are missing if they do not drive. The vehicles have recently been replaced with more modern shuttles.
Recently, Navya has also in Canada celebrated a premiere. In the town of Candiac in the province of Quebec also drives an autonomous e-shuttle by public transport. The project is designed for one year.
Navya is next EasyMile Plathirsch in the development of this vehicle segment in automation.
source (French)