The driverless vehicle maker EasyMile has introduced a passenger pod into the Norwegian market which has completely removed any human supervisor from the vehicle.
EasyMile’s technology, with clients Applied Autonomy, Vy, Yara, City & Lab and Herøya Industripark AS, is behind Level 4 mobility operation in Herøya.
The company says the deployment is an important step toward better mobility, zero-emission and increased safety on private sites.
An EZ10 shuttle is carrying employees to and from the canteen area and main gate. Beside it are lanes with cars, lorries, buses, pedestrians and cyclists. It will cross two intersections. The pilot project will initially run for five days before an evaluation is carried out.
“This project gives us valuable experience in the work of making Herøya an autonomous industrial park,” says Sverre Gotaas, CEO of Herøya Industripark AS.
With the added possibility of making the service on-demand it paves the way for a clear roadmap in Norway to cost-efficient and fully flexible mobility services.
“This is a large and important step on the road to self-driving public transport. Within a few years, we envisage that small, self-driving buses will be able to transport people to or from public transport hubs for trains and buses,” says Synne Homble, Director of Mobility and Tourism at Vy.
