Fairfax County gets grant for autonomous shuttle
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| Olli, an autonomous vehicle operates along National Harbor Boulevard in Prince George’s County, Md. [Jordan Pascale/WAMU] |
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation has approved a $250,000 grant for Fairfax County for an autonomous electric shuttle pilot program, tentatively planned to run between the Mosaic District and the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro Station.
This would be the first state-funded autonomous public transportation demonstration project in Virginia. Fairfax County will provide $50,000 in matching funds.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will consider a formal partnership agreement with Dominion on June 25. Dominion would lease or buy the vehicle for the pilot, and Fairfax County would oversee the operations.
The pilot project would test whether driverless vehicles could be part of a large public transportation system, with the goal of providing connections between Metro stations, employment centers, and residential communities.
A timeline hasn’t been determined for the project yet, and key decisions need to made on the shuttle manufacturer and route, Shuttle rides would be free.
Safety will be a critical element of the project. The shuttle will undergo extensive testing before passenger service can begin, and a safety steward will be on board to monitor operations.
Now this is smart! Of course nothing like this would ever happen in Mason because we do not have a town center. Another problem is that we would have the well populated future homeless center living on these things during the day. Great job Penny Gross!
Now Merrifield may have these new fancy driverless busses, but Mason has driverless shopping carts making its way to the deluxe highrise homeless shelter.