Sally Moss, a resident of the Village of Virginia Trace, took a ride into the future Thursday morning.
She summoned her ride using an iPhone app. The vehicle she summoned to her house was a 2018 Hybrid minivan with some unusual apparatus on its roof which enabled it to drive to her home without any input from a human driver.
The van is owned by Voyage, a California company which is developing fully autonomous vehicles. Moss was accompanied by two Voyage technicians in the front seats who monitored the van and its sensors. The tech in the front seat was also able to take control of the vehicle in the event that the van needed assistance dealing with traffic. Once the van arrived at the curb, Moss entered the van by the rear passenger door and took a seat directly behind the driver.
Facing her was an Apple iPad. Once she had entered the destination into the iPad, the van then drove through the neighborhood to the address she had selected and then back to her house.
Moss was smiling when she arrived back home.
The van self drove 85 percent of the route and the tech drove through those areas with major obstructions.
“It is the future no doubt about it,” Moss said.
She envisioned the uses for such a ride.
“Not just for retired people who get too old to drive, but for those who may need a designated driver,” she said.
Moss, who serves on the Sumter County School Board, said the technology could “be a very important tool for school district transportation needs.”
She was also impressed by the safety features.
“The van won’t start moving until seat belts are buckled and it always stops curbside so you can get out,” she said.
The roof of the van has an assortment of sensors which include radar, optical cameras and lasers, as well as onboard GPS and a computer.
The sensors are linked to the iPad in front of the passenger. The onboard computer notes the location of objects all-around the van and adjusts the speed of the van automatically. Pedestrians are shown, in red.
Voyage started testing its autonomous vehicles in a small retirement community in California called The Villages. That community has 4,000 residents and 15 miles of roadway.
The hundreds of miles of The Villages, roundabouts and gates have presented the company with several new problems to solve. The input of early users like Moss will help in identifying customers’ concerns as the technology advances.
Tom Hauburger, head of product development for Voyage, stressed the company’s focus on safety as being its primary concern.
He said that when the autonomous vehicle is ready for release, it will have the capability to be remotely driven in the event that it encounters a situation it does not recognize, like a landslide.