September 27, 2018
Starting October 9, Edmontonians are invited to take a free ride on an electric autonomous vehicle (ELA) and provide feedback about their experience.
“Edmonton is often innovating new ideas. It is incredibly exciting to be one of the first cities in Western Canada to have our citizens test out a fully autonomous shuttle,” says Mayor Don Iveson. “Transportation and vehicle technology is evolving quickly and cities are at the forefront of this change. It's important we start to understand potential uses and impacts as well as our citizen perceptions.”
ELA will be available to ride at:
Edmontonians are invited to drop by or
sign up to skip the line to ride the electric autonomous shuttle. To ensure public safety during the pilot, the shuttle will be separated from traffic and have a trained operator, who is able to stop the vehicle at any point, on board. The vehicle operates at around 12 km/h, contains a ramp for accessibility and can hold up to a maximum of 12 people, including the operator (six seated and six standing).
“We are very excited to be working with Pacific Western Transportation and the University of Alberta to better understand how autonomous vehicle technology works,” says Stephanie McCabe, Branch Manager for the City’s Corporate Strategy Branch. “It’s important to understand what people think of the change in technology. We want to encourage people to come ride with ELA and tell us what they think by completing the online survey.”
ELA is manufactured by EasyMile, one of the leading autonomous vehicle technology companies with more than 170 incident-free deployments in more than 20 countries across Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, North America, and Europe.
