It’s easy to lose sight of how far we’ve come: horse-drawn carriages to autonomous vehicles (AVs) in only the thinnest of slivers of human history. Think about that. Even the writers of The Jetsons assumed George would have to drive his own car.
Eden Prairie isn’t late to the future. Our town’s own SouthWest Transit unveiled autonomous driving technology here last year, and plans to roll out five self-driving Toyota minivans this very month.
“Letting the wheel move by itself feels disconcerting at first,” said Erik Hansen, CEO of SouthWest Transit. “But after a minute, you learn to relax and go along with the ride.”
Erik’s confidence is well founded. SouthWest Transit is providing autonomous shuttle services in collaboration with May Mobility: one of the world’s foremost authorities on advanced decision-making algorithms, which imbues vehicles with AI that assesses road conditions five times per second.
“‘Intelligent’ and ‘well educated’ are two different things, of course,” explained Erik. “That’s why we spent the past several months putting ‘machine learning’ to good use. By launch date, our AVs will already have spent thousands of hours acclimating themselves to Eden Prairie’s roadways. They ‘know’ every route, street and landmark, and can react appropriately to a vast range of different scenarios.
“Our initial goal for AVs is to provide faster, safer, and more convenient first- and last-mile service, covering only very short distances around Eden Prairie. It hopefully won’t be very long until AVs constitute our entire fleet of SW Prime on-demand rideshare vehicles. That would make life a great deal easier for seniors, people with disabilities, and the rest of the southwest metro’s transit-dependent population.
“That’s what excites me most about AVs. You don’t go into this line of work without wanting to make your community a better place to live in. Food, shelter and clothing are all important, but I believe transportation to be equally essential to happiness. By automating it, we will increase its availability and dramatically reduce its cost.
“We will also avert a staffing crisis. Over half of transit bus drivers are currently over the age of 55. There is no hope of replacing them once they all retire. In addition to ensuring we can continue service, AVs are creating exciting new jobs. May Mobility will employ a team right here in SouthWest Transit’s office, where they will closely monitor this federally funded $4.7-million three-year pilot program.
“I’d like to extend my heartfelt thanks to everyone who attended our grand unveiling last November. It was the crowning moment of a milestone initiative, and an honor to treat so many to their first AV rides. Here’s to many more to come!” swtransit.org