ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — The city of Altamonte Springs is expanding its CraneRIDES shuttle service with larger, autonomous vehicles that will soon connect to SunRail.
What You Need To Know
Officials say that new larger, faster self-driving CraneRIDES shuttles will begin service in January
Florida Department of Transportation is partnering with Altamonte Springs on the project
City leaders say rides will remain free as the current shuttle rides are
Officials say the idea is to give people access to more and different types of transportation to reduce the number of cars on our roads in Central Florida. The state of Florida is partnering with Altamonte Springs to develop more self-driving transportation projects.
“You all ready?” asked Rhys Reid, who gets paid to keep his hands off the steering wheel. “It’s different for sure than what people are normally used to.”
Reid is a safety operator on the new E-Jest autonomous minibus, a self-driving shuttle operated by the Beep company.
Reid said some passengers don’t know what to think when they first climb on board.
“Just seeing it go without any human intervention, it can be, it can be scary at first for some people,” he said.
The good news is most riders are comfortable after a ride or two, he said.
“Once you’ve grown accustomed to it, you get used to the technology and you see how it works,” Reid said. “You learn to trust it.”
Reid is ready to take control of the wheel if there is a fallen tree in the road, a road closure, a challenging weather condition or any other situation that might need human attention. He said all the vehicle’s programing and testing focuses on safety.
“We have a whole sensor suite with fusion between cameras, lidars, radars,” he said.
Altamonte Springs City Manager Frank Martz and his team are working with Beep, the Florida Department of Transportation and vehicle and software companies to roll out the vehicles by January.
FDOT is providing a $750,000 grant so Altamonte Springs can serve as a model for other Florida cities.
“The Florida Department of Transportation said part of the partnership is let’s teach others how to do it,” Martz said.
Potential passengers can already catch a free autonomous shuttle ride in Altamonte through the CraneRIDES service that loops around Crane’s Roost and the mall.
The vehicles being used now seat eight people and travel eight miles per hour, but the new shuttles will seat 12 and can travel 25 miles per hour. Martz said expanding the service to the nearby SunRail station will reduce traffic and give thousands of people a new travel option.
“By connecting to SunRail, end users like AdventHealth, now they can say ‘If you can get to SunRail, we can get you to work,'” he said.
Toby McGraw, who works with the shuttle’s operator Beep, said the goal of the vehicles is to reduce traffic on Florida roads.
“One of the things we’re really focused on is how we can use autonomy in a shared ride environment to reduce congestion, reduce competition at the curb, to expand access to public transit applications,” McGraw said.
Reid has been piloting autonomous vehicles for six years, and said he’s happy to see Central Florida take the lead again.
“This is kind of what we’ve always done,” he said. “This is our way to the future.”