In the Austrian capital Vienna, an autonomous driving shuttle bus ran into a pedestrian last Thursday. At that time the shuttle was traveling at a speed of 12 kilometers per hour, at which the shuttle is limited. The test with the autonomous Navya Sas vans has been suspended pending investigation.

It is not yet known why the shuttle hit the person. In the incident, a young woman hit the side of the bus. According to eyewitnesses, she wanted to cross a brick road while looking at her smartphone and wearing earphones. She sustained some abrasions to the knee. At that time, the bus of startup Navya was driving on a busy square and may not be able to process all incoming information properly. Despite the presence of a driver, a collision could not be prevented.

The incident comes quite soon after the start of the project in Vienna with the Navya vans, which was launched in early June. A driver must always be seated in the van while driving. Also in Paris, where the same shuttle is deployed, the trial has stopped this weekend; according to various media, the decision to do this has nothing to do with the situation in Vienna.

Navya is a French company specializing in the design and construction of autonomous and electric vehicles. In 2016 they produced their first autonomous production vehicle. Navya vehicles are already used in various places around the world. For example, an experimental and autonomous minibus service has been launched in Lyon (France), the buses have been operating in the center of Las Vegas since 2017, self-driving vehicles have been operating in Singapore and the autonomous buses have been introduced in Oslo in April 2019.

Image: navya.tech

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