The French are known for their innovations in public transportation, particularly the TGV (train à grande vitesse), which set the record for the fasted wheeled train in the world. More recently, France’s capital city has adopted driverless trams on two of its metro lines.

Now, the French are again experimenting with driverless public transportation. This time, it’s in the form of a driverless bus–the world’s first–which has taken to the streets of Lyon, France. Designed by the Navya company, two special navettes autonomes (autonomous shuttles) called “Navya Arma” drive ten-minute routes with five stops each through the center of Lyon. The shuttle ride is free and is powered by electricity, however it is not speedy (the buses top out at twelve miles/hour) nor especially convenient (while they have advanced detectors, the buses cannot drive around other traffic and are thus limited to special areas). But it’s a start. And, according to Navya, it’s the first such driverless bus of many that will soon be populating our cities. (To read more about the Arma and see it in action, you can check out Navya’s website here: http://navya.tech.)

In fact, the French have been the pioneers of multi-passenger self-driving vehicles. According to this article:

Nul besoin de se rendre au fin fond du Nevada ou en Californie pour avoir la chance de voir rouler une voiture autonome. Il vous suffit d’aller du côté de la région lyonnaise pour apercevoir un drôle d’engin à quatre roues se déplacer en semi-liberté. Il s’agit d’une navette autonome Navya Arma, 100 % made in France.

(No need to go all the way to Nevada or California to have the opportunity to watch a self-driving car. It suffices to go to Lyon to watch a funny little machine with four wheels that move around in semi liberty. This is the self-driving shuttle Navya Arma, 100% made in France.)

These shuttles will soon be rolled out in Australia and in Switzerland and will be transporting people not only in city hubs, but also airports, amusement parks, academic campuses, and hospitals. Even more importantly, driverless buses can be safer than their counterparts. According to the article above, this was one of the selling points of the new technology: De plus, le facteur accident a été pris en compte. Avec des navettes autonomes, ce facteur est considérablement diminué puisque l’on a constaté que 90 % des accidents sont dus à une erreur humaine. (Furthermore, the accident factor was taken into account. With autonomous shuttles, this factor was greatly reduced because 90% of accidents are due to human error.)

Obviously, this technology has a long way to go before it is perfected. While it may be cheaper to operate this technology, it could also put lots of drivers out of work, unfortunately.

What do you think about this new technology? Do its benefits outweigh its potential harms?