Proterra Starts Autonomous Bus Program In Nevada

Electric bus maker Proterra is moving into the autonomous driving field, with a pilot program starting in Nevada. In an announcement Tuesday, the Burlingame, California, company said it was launching the "industry's first autonomous bus program" in partnership with the University of Nevada, Reno, and its Living Lab Coalition partners. As its basis, the program assumes the dawn of "eventual autonomous mass transit" and is therefore aimed at solutions that will build an image of safety about the future of mass transit. Toward that end, the "autonomous vehicle pilot will deal with real road conditions from the perspective of public transit systems, and emphasize the most challenging aspects related to mass transportation, which include dense and dynamic environments, degraded conditions, and a need for swift emergency response," according to a statement sent to International Business Times. In the first of the pilot's three phases, a Proterra bus operated by the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe Country in Nevada (one of the Living Lab partners) will run on specific routes to sense and collect data.