The University of Waterloo's driverless shuttle bus takes to the road.

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Kirti Pathak
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Waterloo

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Students at the University of Waterloo will soon be able to ride to class in luxury – on the "WATonoBus," a driverless shuttle bus. The WATonoBus system was created on campus and is thought to be the first self-driving shuttle bus at a Canadian university. It has 360-degree cameras and a light detecting and ranging (or LIDAR) system that can detect pedestrians and cyclists. A remote operator monitors the situation from a neighboring lab and can take control if necessary.

For now, a backup driver also rides along as a safety net. "It is really rare that I need to take over at this point," said Aaron Sherratt, a lab technician who served as a backup driver for Thursday's test runs. The bus takes a 2.7-kilometer loop around campus, stopping at five locations along the university's Ring Road. It currently has a top speed of 20 km/hr. Mechanical engineering professor Amir Khajepour hopes the shuttle will be operational by the time students return to campus in the fall.

The WATonoBus is part of the province's Automated Vehicle Pilot Program, which allows driverless cars to be tested as provided as a safety operator is present. The Ministry of Transportation must give the bus the go-ahead before it can begin regular operation.

Khajepour thinks that the technology will be extensively employed in the future, with Kitchener-Waterloo being a focus for the development of autonomous mobility. He believes the technique has the potential to be employed in city buses as well as other industries such as mining. Scheratt is likewise convinced that self-driving cars are the future. He pointed out that self-driving shuttles aren't distracted by daydreams or listening to music they're just focused on driving.

university-of-waterloo watonobus ring-road kitchener-waterloo ministry-of-transportation aaron-sherratt
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