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Pilot

Boulogne-sur-Mer Autonomous Vehicle Project

Boulogne-sur-Mer Autonomous Vehicle Project
Location
Boulogne-sur-Mer, France
Date
From to
Length
0.3 km
Project details
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What

Boulogne sur Mer's initiative consisted of an experiment on Quai des Paquebots along a pre-defined 300m road, near the Sea National Center (which has about 60,000 visitors per year). The experiment was realised in a 10m large dedicated road along the river Liane, which is only used by pedestrians and cyclists. The shuttle service was offered from Wednesday to Sunday from 11:30 until 18:30 and was free of charge. To ensure safety, the shuttles ran at a limited speed (10km/h) and with an on board conductor at all times.

Why

RATP, IDF Mobilités and the City of Paris are collecting feedback from travellers on this pilot. This feedback will be taken into account when creating the autonomous bus line which the city is hoping on eventually putting into place.

Regulatory Framework

© RATP. Boulogne-sur-Mer Autonomous Vehicle Project - Route

Regulatory Framework

French regulatory framework.

Challenges

A technical challenge encountered was the limited speed of the vehicle. A non-technical challenge faced was the public’s difficulty to accept this new service.

Results & Evaluation

By the end of the trial, 2,500 passengers had been transported. The shuttle covered a total distance of 300km at an average operational speed of 10km/h.

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Lexicon

7 words explained

platooning

Also known as flocking. A collection of (automated) vehicles that travel together, actively coordinated in formation. Platoons decrease the distances between vehicles using electronic, and possibly mechanical, coupling. Platooning allows many vehicles to accelerate or brake simultaneously.

urban setting

High density environment with an efficient high capacity public transport system with good capillarity and high frequencies.

suburban setting

Medium density environment with a good public transport system with radial connections to the city center, but lower capillarity and frequencies. This setting includes suburban cities.

small cities

Small, isolated city with an own public transport system and <100K inhabitants.

rural

Low-density environment, small cities and villages with poor public transport services mainly connecting the villages.

SAE level

The SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) levels define the level of vehicle autonomy, or in other words, how much human intervention is still needed for an automated vehicle to operate. Currently, five SAE levels have been defined: Level 0: Automated system issues warnings and may momentarily intervene but has no sustained vehicle control. Level 1 (hands on): Driver and automatic system share vehicle control. The driver must be ready to retake full control at any time. Level 2 (hands off): The automated system takes full control of the vehicle (accelerating, braking, and steering). The driver must monitor the driving and be prepared to intervene immediately at any time if the automated system fails to respond properly. Level 3 (eyes off): The automated system takes full control of the vehicle (accelerating, braking, and steering). The driver must monitor the driving and be prepared to intervene immediately at any time if the automated system fails to respond properly. Level 4 (mind off): As level 3, but no driver attention is ever required for safety, e.g. the driver may safely go to sleep or leave the driver's seat. Level 5 (steering wheel optional): No human intervention is required at all. An example would be a robotic taxi.

V2X

Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication is the passing of information from a vehicle to any entity that may affect the vehicle, and vice versa.