Boca Raton to Test ‘Driverless’ Shuttle Service Downtown, Powered by Local Startup

The exterior of the MiCa autonomous shuttle. (Credit: Boca Raton CRA)

Boca Raton is poised join a growing number of cities worldwide to test an autonomous shuttle service in the downtown section, using vehicles developed by an Estonian company and advanced sensor technology and vehicle piloting systems from a company with its headquarters in Boca Raton.

The start of the service is still several months away, as the equipment must be acquired and programmed, and permitting must be approved by the federal Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Officials said last week that they envision the service beginning with a simple loop around Mizner Park with six to eight stops, which would be expanded over time with service to connect Mizner Park with Royal Palm Place. City officials emphasized that the Mizner Park “loop” service would mainly be used to collect data that is required for final permitting, with the goal being to quickly expand the service to a more functional route between points downtown.

Boca Raton officials, through the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency, are planning to utilize the MiCa for the service. MiCa is an electric-powered small shuttle bus first developed by engineers at the University of Tallin, in Estonia’s capital city, and now manufactured by Estonian company Auve Tech. The same shuttle is currently being utilized on routes in several northern European cities, and has found a niche in the American market in Florida, where it has been tapped for autonomous shuttle services in Jacksonville and West Palm Beach.

The interior of the MiCa autonomous shuttle. (Credit: Boca Raton CRA)

The infrared view of the MiCa autonomous shuttle. (Credit: Boca Raton CRA)

The autonomous driving technology that is connected to the vehicle will come from Guident, a startup that has opened in Boca Raton itself and runs a control center that has been likened to NASA’s flight control center in Houston.

“Globally, we have several programs on the way, with the biggest one in Japan,” said Harold Braun, Guident’s CEO. “There are 19 of those vehicles running in different locations.”

In the United States, there are four levels of autonomous vehicle permitting, with the highest being a fully autonomous vehicle with no human being in control, transporting people within mixed traffic. Boca Raton’s pilot program, run by Guident, will have a “safety operator” on board for human supervision, but can also be controlled remotely from the company’s control center. Guident staffers use Xbox video game controllers to navigate around any issues – similar to the U.S. Navy’s adoption of the same controllers for submarine periscope operations after it was determined that sailors were familiar and more comfortable with them rather than a proprietary device.

“When we start phase one, get the data and get the results, we will quickly get to phase two or phase three,” said Braun.

City officials are pushing for a rapid permitting process. The pilot is set to run for at least three months, four days per week, nine hours per day. The service will likely run from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, with some period reserved for vehicle charging. If the program is expanded, a larger fleet will ensure there are no charging interruptions as the vehicles will be swapped during charging periods.

“We’re not going to be providing a lot of transportation to a lot of people in that [pilot] period, but that is fine since it eases the time … to get to phases two and three,” said Councilman Andy Thompson.

Phase one is the small loop around Mizner Park, while the second phase will loop further down to Palmetto Park Road, behind Sanborn Square and back. The third phase would take the autonomous vehicles deeper into the downtown sector south of Royal Palm Place to the southern terminus of SE Mizner Boulevard. Final service could run to any number of locations, including the city’s Tri-Rail station or the beach. The Boca Raton Innovation Campus is also interested in its own leg of such a system, where 11 stops could established.

Phase One – Mizner Park

The Mizner Park phase of the future Boca Raton autonomous shuttle program. (Credit: Boca Raton CRA)

Phase Two – Downtown/Royal Palm Place

Phases two and three of the future Boca Raton autonomous shuttle program. (Credit: Boca Raton CRA)

The Mizner Park test may ultimately serve just for data collection in preparation for expansion.

“I like this concept, but I don’t think it’s going to be successful from one end of Mizner Park to the other,” said Mayor Scott Singer. “It’s a very pedestrian-friendly area – it’s probably our most pedestrian-friendly area – and to walk from one end to the other is not that long. The merchants and restaurateurs probably appreciate having more pedestrian activity there.”

Regardless of its future routing, the Guident software is already being used to power autonomous vehicles on a 0.9-mile route in West Palm Beach, and a larger 3-mile route in Jacksonville that city officials hope will eventually connect to the airport and other major mobility access points.

The MiCa vehicles seat eight passengers and will initially come with a full-time safety operator on board. They travel at 25 m.p.h. and, once federal permits are in-hand, can operate fully autonomously with a suite of ten 360-degree cameras and seven laser-based sensor systems which also have 360-degree coverage. The vehicles are air conditioned for comfort.

Should the city grant its approval to the project, the $22,000 monthly cost during the pilot will include passenger service, federal permitting work, vehicle insurance, charging equipment, and electrician labor. The city will store the vehicles on its property.