France/Far from the cities, an autonomous shuttle tries its luck in rural areas
An autonomous vehicle improving mobility in the countryside: several municipalities in the Indre region are experimenting until the end of 2022 with an automatic shuttle service presented as a world first.
Without ever exceeding 50 km/h, a pink, green and blue van crosses the Brenne and its ponds (in central France, south of Tours). Apart from a few protrusions and sensors, there is nothing to distinguish it from conventional minibuses.
But in the shuttle built by the French start-up Milla, no driver. As a matter of safety, given that the technology is still under construction, an "operator" is placed behind a steering wheel that turns by itself. For example, he takes over when the shuttle has to pass a badly parked vehicle.
As for the pedals, they are pushed in and out without touching them, from Mézières-en-Brenne to Martizay, passing through Paulnay and Azay-le-Ferron. Four stops for a journey of 17 kilometers covered in 36 minutes.
Free for users, the service, which will be in place until December 31, cost nearly 800,000 euros, half of which was invested by the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe) as part of the Autonomous Shuttle Experiments (ENA) program.
"We're not looking for a technical experiment but rather a societal one," explains Jean-Bernard Constant, digital manager at the Coeur de Brenne community of municipalities. "There are 150 experiments in France. However, there are very few in rural areas. And so many kilometers on open road, it is a world first."
However, this also allows us to study "all the technical problems that we don't have in the city," he adds.
For example, how to deal with tall grass that grows and can interfere with the vehicle's laser sensors? How to deal with a wild boar that decides to cross the road? How will the computer also evaluate a changing landscape, according to the seasons?
For the local elected officials, this life-size test is not a gadget. The autonomous shuttle could eventually join the arsenal to counter the slow demographic erosion of this territory of 5,000 inhabitants.
- "Not afraid at all"-
"We have always, as in many rural areas, had problems around mobility: it must move few people on a sparse space, "says Sebastien Lalange, mayor of Paulnay and vice president of Coeur de Brenne.
"The autonomous shuttle is a solution for the rural environment. We know well that what costs in the transport, it is the one who drives. In the absence of driver, mobility becomes possible financially. This could be the future for very clear financial reasons", he believes.
In the meantime, users are delighted, despite the relative slowness of the electric shuttle and its somewhat abrupt braking.
"We go to the media library in Azay to see an exhibition and it saves us from taking the car. (...) I find it nice to have an automatic, clean vehicle. It didn't scare me at all", smiles Solange Gitton, retired.
"It went very well. No surprise, we knew it wasn't going fast", also appreciates her husband Philippe. "It corresponds to a need in rural areas. And given the price of gas, it's not a luxury."
In the sweltering summer, the shuttle is starting to see some success, according to Jean-Bernard Constant.
"We have residents who have no mobility solution at all and who use it on a regular basis," he says. Every Thursday since the experiment began in mid-July, more than a dozen people have been using it to get to the Mézières market.
"The next step is for the operator behind the wheel to be behind a screen and manage several shuttles. Then we will have a real logic of territorial development of the future", ventures Jean-Bernard Contant.
He already imagines, "within a few years", "a fleet of smaller vehicles that will go, on demand, to pick up people to take them to their appointments or to do the shopping". What, the elected officials hope, to make the inhabitants pass the desire to leave the Brenne.
