Goals & Objectives

According to the Florida DOT, the primary objective of the Gainesville Autonomous Transit Shuttle pilot is to “deploy an autonomous transit system to connect the City of Gainesville Innovation District and downtown with the University of Florida campus and student housing by means of frequent transit service”. 

When the request for proposals (RFP) for the program was released by Gainesville RTS in May 2017, the goals for the deployment of such a project were:  

• to learn about public attitudes towards automation in transportation; 
• to document the safety benefits of such a service; and 
• to bring Highly Automated Vehicles (HAV) forward within a Connected Vehicle (CV) environment. 

One of the stated metrics for this system is to maintain a maximum headway of 10 minutes or less for the routes. 

Source: Florida DOT; Gainesville AV pilot program service area and route

Program Conception

In 2016, the state of Florida passed a law to legalize use of AVs on public roads. This legislation was significant relative to other states’ AV legislation at the time because it permitted AVs to be tested without requiring a human driver behind the wheel, making Florida an attractive testing ground for AV pilot programs.  

Following the legalization of AVs, the Florida DOT launched a feasibility study exploring the possibilities for AV deployment in Gainesville as part of the Florida Connected and Automated Vehicle Initiative (Florida-CAVI), and it released its findings in June 2017. This study helped guide the development of the RFP for the Gainesville Autonomous Transit Shuttle pilot, as it framed what the city and its public agency partners could likely expect from such a program.  

The RFP, released May 2017, specified clear requirements for potential contractors regarding how the Gainesville Autonomous Transit Shuttle pilot would need to be operated, and what standards the AVs deployed would need to meet.  

Operating requirements for pilot applicants stated in RFP included:

• Continuously transport passengers along a low speed (15mph limit), controlled access corridor shared with regular traffic, transit buses and emergency vehicles with public traffic crossing signalized intersections, and bicycle and pedestrian traffic.  
• Gainesville RTS, Florida FDOT, and the University of Florida will work with the contractor to develop the operating plan following FDOT findings on the “GATrIC Study Executive Summary”. 
• Board and alight passengers safely at predefined stop locations with level curbside boarding or another method to allow mobility impaired individuals to access and egress the vehicle. 
• Proposer shall describe how to protect vulnerable road users.  
• Level 4 Autonomy or higher is preferred.  
• As RTS cannot provide any of its staff to operate, maintain or supervise the service, proposer should provide for such resources if required in their project plan. RTS will work with the selected contractor to identify these resources if requested.   

Vehicle requirements for pilot applications stated in RFP included: 

• Shuttle shall be appropriately designed and constructed to operate safely and efficiently at minimum within the limited operational design domain (ODD) described in this solicitation and more broadly, throughout downtown Gainesville and University of Florida.  
• Shuttle shall make both visual and audible next stop announcements in English.  
• Shuttle shall have the ability to be climate controlled.  A/C to maintain internal temperature during cooling months no higher than 75 degrees Fahrenheit and heating to maintain no less than 65 degrees during heating season.  
• Vehicles shall be electric, preferably with the ability to be charged without wireline infrastructure.  
• Shuttle shall have 4G or better wireless connectivity with the ability to stream video and other data in real-time for both management and operations of the vehicles, as well as, for passengers.  
• HAV system shall be impenetrable to attempted access by outside parties for the purpose of modifying system operations or otherwise accessing data governing the system.  
• Proposer shall either provide or work towards self-certification of their vehicle consistent with Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and the Highly Automated Vehicle (HAV) system consistent with the US DOT 15 point Safety Assessment for deploying automated vehicle technologies.  
• If a proposer cannot certify that their proposed vehicle complies with all applicable FMVSS, an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) must be obtained in order to test on public roads.
• Shuttle shall include a display to host real time information for RTS services connecting with RTS Automated Vehicle Location (AVL) system.  
• Proposer shall have the ability to begin testing and operation with existing traffic signal infrastructure.  
• Proposer shall coordinate with the University of Florida Testbed Project team. This coordination is expected to require Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) Dedicated Short Range Communications (DSRC) capability between shuttles and traffic signals and the potential for other Vehicle to Vehicle (V2V) and Vehicle to Anything (V2X), i.e., bicycle and pedestrian) applications as they become available.  To facilitate this, provision of sensor inputs to the HAV system which allow for receipt and interpretation of Signal Phase and Timing (SPaT) and MAP messages from forthcoming Roadside Units (RSU) being installed at SW 2nd Avenue and SW 4th avenue on SW13th Street intersections.  
• Allow for vehicle wrap with space to advertise and identify project partners.  

In December 2017, the City of Gainesville awarded the contract for the AV shuttle transit system to Transdev. The project was funded by a grant from the Florida DOT up to $2.7 million (Caplan, 2018). Transdev is also operating other AV projects in Colorado, California, France and the Netherlands (Delegal, 2020). 

Program Development

After being awarded the contract in December 2017, Transdev worked with the Gainesville RTS, the Florida DOT and the University of Florida to develop the operating plan, which initially planned for the demonstration period to begin in May 2018.  

The company opted to use vehicles from the French company EasyMile, largely because Transdev was familiar with their technology and the EasyMile shuttles were deployed in similar test pilots in Europe at the time. The vehicles are 12-person electrically-powered shuttles (room for 6 standing and 6 seated), and their speed is capped at 15 miles per hour for the purposes of the pilot.    

However, to be deployed in the US, vehicles need to certify that they meet the standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), or they need to obtain an exemption from the Administration. Because the NHTSA does not currently have a different set of standards for AVs and for non-autonomous vehicles, many AVs – including the EasyMile shuttles selected by Transdev for the Gainesville pilot – do not meet the established requirements pertaining to steering wheels, brake pedals, and other human-centric standards. (For more on FMVSS and AV exemptions, see SUMC’s brief overview on the topic here.) As a result, Transdev petitioned the NHTSA for an exemption so the shuttles could nevertheless be deployed on public roads. Unfortunately, the 2018-2019 federal government shutdown significantly delayed this process. The vehicles were granted the exemption and approved for deployment in January 2020 for six months. Testing was conducted at a nearby business park, and then along the route on which they were to be deployed. Videos of the shuttles on the route have been sent to the NHTSA to provide additional insights on AV deployment programs.   

Six locations along the designated route were selected to serve as boarding and alighting stops, some of which were already bus stops on RTS fixed routes. The shuttles are programmed to abide by regular on-street parking conditions, and to stop if they detect movement such as pedestrians, open doors or vehicles entering their path. Of the three shuttles dedicated to the pilot, two operate simultaneously, while the third charges. Throughout the pilot, fares will not be collected from passengers, and a trained human supervisor will be present to supersede the vehicle’s programming if needed.  

Although the pilot initially began carrying passengers in January 2020, an incident in Ohio on EasyMile shuttles in February in which a passenger was hurt when the AV had to make an emergency stop led to the NHTSA suspending operations of all fleets carrying passengers (Marshall, 2020). The shuttles in Gainesville could have continued to operate on the route without passengers, but the RTS chose to halt operations altogether following the temporary suspension (Felts, 2020). 

In regards to building out the infrastructure needed to support AV deployment, the Gainesville RTS and other regional agencies have upgraded some streetlights to include fiber technology, which enables the devices to capture data and communicate with vehicles and other devices. One on-street parking space was removed to make space for a shuttle stop along the route (Ponnaluri et al, 2028). The city has also pursued securing provisions to allow the shuttle to have the right of way or have a designated turn time at a select intersection along the route.

Next Steps

During the first phase of the pilot, the shuttles’ route will be limited to a portion of the route in downtown Gainesville, and the shuttles will be studied to assess how they manage features like roundabouts and unanticipated stimuli. The second and third phases will expand service to the fully planned route, extending from Depot Park to the University of Florida campus.  

References

BldgTmrw (2018 September 20). Gainesville AV Project. https://smartmycity.com/projects/gainesville-av-project-hg1ur  

Caplan, Andrew (2017 December 10). “Self-driving shuttle coming to Gainesville in April.” The Gainesville Sun. https://www.gainesville.com/news/20171210/self-driving-shuttle-coming-to-gainesville-in-april

Caplan, Andrew (2018 April 4). “Gainesville, Fla., Tables Autonomous Shuttle Program.” The Gainesville Sun. https://www.govtech.com/fs/automation/Gainesville-Fla-Tables-Autonomous-Shuttle-Program.html  

Delegal, Mary Katherine (2020 January 30). “Gainesville Set To Run Self-Driving Vehicles On Its Public Roads.” WUFT NPR. https://www.wuft.org/news/2020/01/30/gainesville-set-to-become-first-u-s-city-with-self-driving-buses-on-public-roads/ 

Felts, Emily (2020 February 27). “Gainesville Driverless Shuttle Suspended After Woman Hurt On One in Ohio.” WUFT NPR. https://www.wuft.org/news/2020/02/27/gainesville-driverless-shuttle-suspended-after-woman-hurt-on-one-in-ohio/ 

Florida Department of Transit. Traffic Engineering and Operations Office: AV Shuttle. https://www.fdot.gov/traffic/its/projects-deploy/cv/maplocations/gains-av.shtm

Marshall, Aarian (2020 February 29). The Feds Ban a Self-Driving Shuttle Fleet From Carrying People. Wired. https://www.wired.com/story/feds-ban-self-driving-shuttle-fleet-carrying-people/?bxid=5cec24fbfc942d3ada068985&cndid=57041884&esrc=DailyNLPromo?utm_ter&source=EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_TRANSPORTATION_ZZ&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_mailing=WIR_Transportation_030220&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl&utm_term=WIR_Transportation

Ponnaluri, Raj, Elefteriadou, Lily, Gomez, Jesus (2018 November 27). Aboard the Gators. Roads & Bridges. https://www.roadsbridges.com/aboard-gators

University of Florida Transportation Institute (2019 April 2). Gainesville Autonomous Shuttle. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IVaHGBc2xY