The first fully driverless ride service was unveiled by autonomous car startup May Mobility on Monday, providing residents of an Arizona retirement home with human-free transportation.
The Toyota-backed company said in a statement that retirees in Sun City, Arizona, are the first to test its autonomous vehicles without a human safety operator in the driver’s seat.
Via is an app-based on-demand transit service that allows a limited number of users in the 55+ community outside of Phoenix to order a trip in a Toyota Sienna minivan to resident complexes, medical clinics, and other sites starting this Monday afternoon. Residents with “varying transportation needs” make up the Early Rider test group, which May Mobility established to get input and improve its driverless technology for senior living environments.
“Our quality of life is really impacted if they can’t get transportation because our cities are built in such a sprawling way,” May Mobility CEO Edwin Olson told CNN. “Especially here, we have an ageing population – people who either can’t drive or maybe shouldn’t be driving.” “They are unable to go to the grocery store, attend doctor’s appointments, or engage in leisure activities. For us, being able to offer transportation where people most need it is a social as well as commercial benefit.
Currently, May Mobility offers free driverless minivan rides on Sun City’s public highways in the afternoons of weekdays. When the autonomous vehicles travel, a group of distant operators from May Mobility keep an eye on and
Applications for the position of “Early Rider” are open to any Sun City resident, however May Mobility states that it plans to “significantly expand” driverless services outside of the test group.
The Michigan-based business began testing its on-demand cars on Sun City public roads in April, but up until this point, the cars had a safety operator seated in the driver’s seat for testing purposes. While May is funding this phase, AARP supported the initial test. May continues to test rides in cities in Texas, Michigan, and Minnesota with safety operators.
Despite the difficulties faced by its largest rivals, May Mobility has managed to reach the testing phase by collaborating with cities, transit agencies, retirement homes, and other organizations to discover mobility gaps. Waymo, controlled by Alphabet, began operating in San Francisco in August after receiving permission to do so, and in December it began offering robotaxi pickups at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Meanwhile, following GM’s November decision to reduce project funding following an autonomous vehicle collision that injured a pedestrian in downtown San Francisco, General Motors’ self-driving subsidiary Cruise laid off about 25% of its workers in December. Cruise’s autonomous taxi testing permits were revoked by California officials as a result of the event.
“We’re not automated cabs. We are a microtransit company that assists communities in resolving their most difficult transportation issues,” Olson stated. “In numerous instances,
Since its 2017 launch and graduation from the esteemed Y Combinator startup accelerator, May Mobility has also come under fire. (Other Y Combinator alumni include Dropbox, DoorDash, Airbnb, and Cruise).
In a 2019 interview, officials expressed concerns about the lack of air conditioning in shuttles, the sluggish adoption of vehicles that can accommodate riders with disabilities, and various weather conditions that necessitated human operators to intervene. This was conducted amid a partnership with the Department of Transportation in Rhode Island.