CEA Saclay Shuttle Service

For two months RATP operated 2 Easymile shuttles which ran Monday to Friday from 10:00 to 16:00 on a 2.6km loop with seven stops. They circulated in mixed traffic on the roads of the industrial site, interacting with other vehicles, as well as with pedestrians and cyclists. The shuttles were able to cross intersections and pedestrian crossings, deal with speed bumps and navigate roundabouts safely. Due to local regulations and to ensure safety, there was always an operator on board.
This shuttle served as a free internal service for the Saclay CEA private industrial estate, which is 130 ha and has 7,000 employees. The site provided an urban environment with moderate traffic, an ideal setting to carry out trials.

This experiment was developed in the context of a national research project called SESNA. SESNA focuses on four major research topics: safety, cybersecurity, supervision and normative framework.

The budget of this project was about €500,000 EUR.

The project followed the French regulatory framework.

The challenges faced were mainly technical. These included: security, cybersecurity and supervision. On the non-technical side, a challenge faced was the acceptance of the vehicles among the target user groups.