Transit companies are looking at ways to reduce the cost of operating buses by automating certain functions. The company says it does not intend to remove a driver from its fleet altogether. It is working with organized labor inConnecticut on how to make sure that technology provides value, including energy efficiency and safety benefits.
Transit advocates have made autonomous vehicles something of a boogeyman lately, framing the emerging technology as a way to perpetuate the car's mobility monopoly and starve public transit of funding. In reality, transit is one of the most compelling applications and automation is a huge opportunity to dramatically improve public transit. To help explain this opportunity, Nathaniel Horadam of the Center for Transportation and the Environment joins the show to discuss a light-rail style automated bus rapid transit project he's been working on, and the automated transit opportunity more broadly.