The shuttle bus service will be operated by Boston start-up Optimus Ride. The company will run vehicles on private roads at the Brooklyn Navy Yard site, which is located on New York’s East River. The shuttle will transport workers across the large site. The complex, which covers 225.15 acres, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There are some 400 manufacturing businesses and roughly 9,000 workers at the site.
Optimus Ride is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff company based in Boston, MA. The company develops self-driving technologies. The company’s aim is to “enable efficient, sustainable, and equitable mobility systems and solutions.”
The Navy Yard experiment is significant, and it will represent the first commercial self-driving vehicle deployment in the state of New York. The new vehicles, for which detailed specifications have yet to be provided, are designed for operating in environments of 25 miles per hour.
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According to Optimus Ride CEO and co-founder Dr. Ryan Chin: “Working with leading developments and communities… enable us to further our mission to transform mobility…we are well positioned as the leader in self-driving systems for geofenced areas.”
Optimus Ride is also planning, according to The Verge, to provide ride-hailing trips to residents of Paradise Valley retirement community in Northern California.
As the BBC assesses, several cities and countries around the world have been allowing driverless vehicles onto their roads. Examples include the Swiss Post Office operating a driverless shuttle in the Valais Canton and the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore runs a driverless shuttle services throughout its campus.
