The Hawaiʻi Department of Transportation (HDOT), in collaboration with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, showcased its first autonomous electric passenger shuttle this week at the Western Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials 2023 annual meeting.
The AV Star All-Electric Autonomous Min-E Bus holds 14 passengers, is Americans with Disabilities Act compliant and is equipped with the Perrone Robotics To Navigate to You autonomous system. It also meets all federal motor vehicle safety standards.
It will serve in the Rainbow Shuttle service to transport students and staff around the Mānoa campus. In phase two, it will provide customized mobility-on-demand services in East Kapolei communities.
The College of Engineering is collecting data for HDOT to analyze the vehicles.
The pilot program provides first-hand experience and understanding of future transportation system operations and will help the state prepare for vehicle-infrastructure-autonomy integrations and large-scale autonomous vehicle deployments.
It is the first program to take advantage of the state’s Autonomous Vehicle Testing law.
The shuttle, when compared to a comparable gas-powered transit van, has the capacity to save more than 660 gallons of gas annually and decrease carbon dioxide by 13,021 pounds annually. It is part of the state’s efforts to transition to electric vehicles by 2035.