Let’s talk about carcinization for a moment. It’s a concept I have a soft spot for, in no small part because it helped my pub quiz team win a competition one night. For the uninitiated, it describes the process of evolution that crabs have undergone and suggests that there’s some evolutionary advantage to that kind of body. Apparently, the same thing is true for anteaters. What does this have to do with autonomous vehicles, you might ask? Plenty.
Rideshare company Lyft recently announced plans to roll out a new element of its service in the form of autonomous vehicles. But not just any autonomous vehicles: instead, these are shuttle buses capable of transporting multiple people at a time. As of now, Lyft plans to have autonomous shuttles running on its service by late next year.
This new initiative will be part of a joint venture with BENTELER Mobility, utilizing vehicles made by HOLON. HOLON showed off the interior of these autonomous shuttles last month at the UITP Global Public Transport Summit, which was held in Hamburg, Germany. Presumably, HOLON’s new manufacturing facility in Jacksonville will be involved in producing the shuttles in question.
BENTELER Mobility’s CEO, Tobias Liebelt, has enthusiastic things to say about the partnership in a statement. “Lyft’s innovative and ambitious culture matches our own. Lyft brings excellent expertise in ride-hailing, deep market penetration, and a strong commitment to making autonomous mobility a reality,” Liebelt said. “Together, we combine their technology excellence and user-first approach with our automotive-grade AV platforms, operational excellence, and scalable fleet capabilities.”
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Will this bring us a step closer to robotaxis everywhere?As for where we might see these autonomous shuttles, Lyft’s announcement states that they plan to debut them “in partnership with airports and cities” at first. There’s an echo there of autonomous shuttle company Ohmio running a pilot program at JFK Airport last year, which makes sense: moving people around airports is an understandable place to start offering these services.
But there’s also something a little familiar about this, which brings us back to carcinization. A shuttle bus with multiple passengers heading to multiple destinations along the same route sounds like, well, public transportation. Lyft isn’t the only rideshare company doing something like this; a WIRED article from last month about one of their competitors had the headline “Uber Just Reinvented the Bus … Again.”
It’s also notable that the nonprofit American Public Transportation Association recently touted the city of Jacksonville’s decision to purchase 14 self-driving shuttles from HOLON as “the Future of Public Transit.” Is that future one without drivers behind the wheel? With Lyft and Uber both pushing for more autonomous shuttles, we might be getting closer to it.
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