Peachtree Corners Smart City Adds Self-Driving Minivans

Self-driving company May Mobility is celebrating a new deployment of its autonomous vehicles (AVs) in yet another state. 

The company’s Toyota Sienna Autono-MaaS minivans have started running at the Peachtree Corners smart city development in Georgia.

The AVs are operating in partnership with T-Mobile, which is providing the 5G connectivity, and the smart city’s Curiosity Lab, which is a dedicated space to test and assess mobility solutions.

Initially the service will be used to demonstrate the technology to visitors along the lab’s Technology Parkway, with eight pre-determined stops covering hotels, restaurants, shops and offices, as well as the facility’s Innovation Center and City Hall before it opens to the public on Oct. 7.

It will run between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Mondays to Fridays, with each AV able to carry four passengers at a time, with a safety attendant on board. Longer term, the plan is to remove the attendant to provide a fully autonomous service.

Riders would be able to book trips by way of the Via app.

The AVs are equipped with radar, lidar sensors and cameras, as well as May Mobility’s proprietary AI-powered multi-policy decision making (MPDM) system. This utilizes on-board simulations in real-time to learn from thousands of possible scenarios every second, before choosing the safest one.

Related:Self-Driving Transit System Launches in Arizona Retirement Community

The 5G connectivity, meanwhile, promises to deliver low latency and high bandwidth, providing riders with a smoother experience on the road.

Manik Dhar, May Mobility chief commercial officer

“We can’t wait for Georgians to experience our autonomous driving technology and bringing this service to Peachtree Corners is an exciting first step for the state,” said Manik Dhar, May Mobility chief commercial officer.

Peachtree Corners city manager Brian Johnson added: “As we continue to focus on bringing autonomous mobility options to residents and visitors to better connect them with the community, May Mobility‘s solutions provide an on-demand service within our ecosystem, with the goal to slowly expand the route to our Town Center.”

The arrival in Georgia follows several new deployments of the Michigan-based company’s on-demand AVs, in an array of diverse locations across the US.

Highlights include the launch of a service at a retirement community in Sun City, Arizona; shuttles to ferry people to medical appointments in Martinez, in the Bay Area, California; a public transit program in Minnesota for wheelchair users and rides for vulnerable residents in Detroit. It has also been working with Softbank to test AVs in Japan.

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