On Wednesday, a driverless shuttle debuted in Las Vegas. The shuttle, made by the French company Navya ARMA, began a route looping it around Vegas’s downtown. Within an hour, the shuttle was already involved in a crash.
The crash, apparently, was not the shuttle’s fault. Sponsored by AAA, the shuttle is intended less for its actual utility and more to get people used to the idea of driverless cars. Crashes, then, are bad. But wait! According to a AAA spokesman, it wasn’t even the shuttle’s fault.
It’s true that you can’t account for human drivers who hit parked cars (or driverless shuttles, as the case may be). The damage was pretty minor all told, and there were no injuries.
Keolis, the company that owns and operates the shuttle, did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but I’ll update this post if they do.
Despite what happened, if you’re in Vegas, I think you should give it a whirl. Some details, according to KSNV:
As of now, the rides are free.
The shuttle can be boarded at any of the three stops located on Fremont and Carson Streets between Las Vegas Boulevard and 8th Street.
The shuttle seats eight with seatbelts and has the ability to immediately brake automatically or manually in case anything crosses its path — something that was clearly tested in today’s incident.