The N.C. Department of Transportation partnered with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in 2023 to bring a novel-design, low-speed autonomous shuttle to campus through the Connected Autonomous Shuttle Supporting Innovation program, or CASSI.
The shuttle operated on a continuous, six-stop route from July until December.
This was the most complex project under the CASSI program to date. It had the most traffic signals (four total), longest route (2.2 miles), longest duration (23 weeks), and most intense mixed traffic environment that included bicyclist, scooter, pedestrian, motor vehicle, and transit interactions and shared stops with the existing campus bus fleet. The project advanced NCDOT’s goal of incrementally increasing the complexity of projects based on prior successes and lessons learned with a focus on transit applications. NCDOT collaborated with faculty, staff, and students to research and evaluate the pilot.
Manufactured by France-based Navya and operated by Lake Nona, Florida-based Beep, the shuttle relied on LiDAR, cameras and GPS technology to navigate on a fixed route.
The same shuttle was piloted at Cary’s Fred G. Bond Metro Park in 2023. A similar shuttle was piloted under the CASSI program on the Centennial Campus of N.C. State University in Raleigh in 2020 and at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills in 2021.
Facts about the autonomous vehicle:
- There was no cost to ride
- Transported up to eight people and an attendant
- Wheelchair accessible
- Fully electric
- Operated at speeds up to 12 mph