The autonomous shuttle is a public transport vehicle as it can carry up to 15 people. In the experimentation currently being carried out, the legislator imposes for collective passenger transport, an accredited operator must be on board. In this case, in France, the only driving licence to ensure public transport missions is a driving licence D.
Driving licence D allows the transport of persons with more than 8 seats in addition to the operator. To hold this driving licence the driver needs to fulfils conditions of age, medical control, training and succeed a test. As part of the autonomous shuttle, our operators are accredited and trained to the specificity of the vehicle and its operation. The main mission of the operator is to inform passengers, to manually pick up the control of the vehicle and, in case of incidents, to secure passengers and other road users.
Regarding the hardware component, in addition to vehicle, the operation of an autonomous shuttle requires the establishment of a parking base to ensure the reloading of this 100% electric vehicle. These parking bases can also allow the daily maintenance of the vehicle to ensure comfort and cleanliness. We are working on several approaches to integrate these bases into existing infrastructures or to give them an innovative character.