The Contra Costa Transportation Authority is working with the American Automobile Association to test a self-driving shuttle at the GoMentum Station at the former Naval Weapons Station Concord.
The shuttle, a 3D-printed electric vehicle called “Olli,” is capable of carrying eight seated passengers. It has a maximum range of 25 to 40 miles and a maximum speed of 25 mph. Transit officials plan to put it through a series of testing scenarios like negotiating intersections, interacting with pedestrians and going through tunnels along more than 20 miles of roadway at the East Bay facility.
“We are looking forward to learning from the testing that will happen at the GoMentum Station, and ultimately being able to offer Contra Costa residents a safe, domestically manufactured, electric, self-driving shuttle as a means of travel to help connect them to transit, medical, and employment centers in Contra Costa,” CCTA Executive Director Randy Iwasaki said in a statement Wednesday.
Olli is designed by Local Motors, an Arizona-based vehicle maker focused on open-source designs using multiple, small production sites. The company was founded in 2007.
photo credit: www.LocalMotors.com
Not sure it will work but find the idea of 3-D printing a bus, even a small one, something right out of Sci Fi stories. It’s just I don’t remember any stories about 3-D printing much of anything of size.
Think replicators from Star Trek.
There have been some printed buildings made in the last few years. You can read about some current developments here:
https://www.3dnatives.com/en/3d-printed-house-companies-120220184/
Enjoy.
Just what we need, slower public transit
I’m surprised it didn’t run out of ink like the HP & Epson printers always do.
Imagine having to buy all of those ink cartridges!
Can you imagine the ink cartridges bill for something like that? 😀
How do I get a job with these folks??? Who’s in charge?
I applied to test self-driving vehicles at CNWS. I don’t know if it is the same company, but I never heard from them. I don’t answer my phone, however, and I didn’t really expect them to leave a message. The job was advertised on indeed.com .
Theres no controlling something that runs out of energy after 40 miles and causes a crash.
Ya ever think they might have thought of that.
My Roomba automatically docks itself when it runs low on juice. There’s no reason this vehicle can’t be programmed to respond appropriately when the battery is running low.
And another new “Transportation Testing Tax” will arrive long before the bus, wait and see……
OMG,…it looks like a toy.
My Roomba automatically docks itself when it runs low on juice. There’s no reason this vehicle can’t be programmed to respond appropriately when the battery is running low.
This looked familiar… They already tested Olli at University of Buffalo over a year ago. I guess it needed some tweaking?
Speaking of 3D printing the Vatican security guards, aka The Swiss Guards, are now wearing helmets made by 3D printing. See:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/24/18238786/vatican-swiss-guards-3d-printed-helmets
Enjoy.