By Zyneria Byrd, Spectrum News 1
GREENSBORO, NC — North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University unveiled a fleet of new self-driving vehicles for a new research pilot program.
Students, faculty, staff and community members can take the shuttles from campus to downtown Greensboro.
The fleet is made up of three self-driving shuttles that go no faster than 25 mph, a self-driving van and two regular sedans.
The shuttles can perform all driving tasks under specific circumstances, and a human driver can override and take control of the car. The cars are in compliance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards, the university said.
The purpose for the program is to bring autonomous vehicles to public and rural transportation.
“There are a lot of companies working on autonomous vehicles, said Dr. Ali Karimoddini, Professor and Director, CR2C2 Regional University Transportation Center at North Carolina A&T.
He said not many companies are working to use selfdriving vehicles for public transportation and rural transportaion.
“This is the gap that needs more effort and attention. And that’s what our research team is focused to address this gap,” he said.
After the pilot program, the research team will go over feedback from riders to make tweaks to the research to make the autonomous vehicles an even safer ride.
The autonomous vehicle pilot program will be open to the public on weekdays from Sept. 19 to Oct. 13th, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
The two stops on this one-mile ride will begin at the Harold L. Martin Sr. Engineering Research and Innovation Complex to the Miriam P. Brenner Children’s Museum.
