COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Soon, you may be able to ride around part of metro Atlanta in a shuttle that drives itself.
A company called Beep is bringing its autonomous vehicle to take people around the battery and we got a first look at how it works.
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This is not your ordinary shuttle.
Sure it takes people around, but the difference is that there is no driver.
Channel 2′s Jorge Estevez was there to watch the shuttle move through parts of Cobb County.
Channel 2 Action News was the only TV station there during first responder training
Agencies learned how to react in the event of an emergency to make safety a priority as they test the technology to create a path toward the future.
The autonomous shuttle will transport as many as ten people around an area called the Cumberland Suite, a three-mile path that will include Truist Park, the Battery Atlanta, the Cobb Galleria Center, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center and 800 acres of Natural Park Land without relying on the roads.
Kim Menefee is part of the Cumberland Community Improvement District which has invested $400,000 in the pilot program.
“We know people want other options on how they want to get around the district and we want to plan for that,” Menefee said.
So that’s why the Cumberland District partnered with Beep, a company that specializes in deploying autonomous vehicles in communities.
“There will always be a human in the loop when we deploy these shuttles so in the future there may not be an attendant on board but they will be monitored,” CEO Joe Moye said.
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While the shuttles have attendants, the shuttle must operate as if it were its own driver.
So with safety features in place, and the shuttle doing laps, now it’s up to Cobb County riders to weigh in to see if the rubber can meet the road’s demands.
This is a pilot program for the board of the Cumberland Community Improvement District to test the shuttle to see if it works and if it does, how many they may need to get people around.
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