The city of Candiac has launched a one-year pilot project to operate a self-driving bus that is fully electric.
It’ll operate along a two-kilometre route on Montcalm Boulevard North between the Exo bus terminal and Marie-Victorin Boulevard, with five stops along the route.
The bus carries 15 passengers including standing room for four, and the service is free.
This is the first time a self-driving bus is being operated on a city street in Canada. The service is being operated by Keolis Canada which received $350 thousand from the Quebec government for the project.
WATCH: A city on Montreal’s South Shore is taking the idea of public transit to another level. As Global’s Phil Carpenter reports, Candiac officials have launched a pilot project for a self-driving bus.
Despite the challenges of navigating traffic and following traffic signals, city officials, it is safe.
“The first goal is to protect the people to be sure that the shuttle is very secure,” Candiac Mayor Normand Dyotte told Global News. “We have an operator in case there’s some problem.”
Operators program the route into the bus’ computer which communicates with sensors installed along the route at stop signs, bus stops and intersections to tell it where to stop.
It can travel at a maximum speed of 25 kilometres an hour, doesn’t change lanes and is programmed to slow down if it has to, explains Marie Hélène Cloutier, Vice President, Passenger Experience, Marketing and Sales for Keolis Canada, the company operating the service.
“If it crosses someone on a bike as an example, it will slow down and follow the pace of the people on the bike.”
If obstacles cross its path, it is programmed to stop.
But it can’t handle snow yet.
Service will stop between December and spring when the snow melts, so that company officials can do tests on how it handles the winter.