I tried the first self-driving mass transit in the United States -- and now I'm excited for the future of travel

I may have come to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, but there was one other thing I knew I had to do while I was there – I needed to ride the downtown Las Vegas shuttle, the first-ever driverless mass transit test program in the country.

Since its launch in November 2017, the shuttle has given 10,000 riders a free lift around a little, 0.6-mile stretch of downtown Las Vegas. The program was co-created by AAA and a French transportation company called Keolis, with the actual shuttle built by a self-driving car startup called Navya ARMA.

On my last day in Las Vegas, I trekked up to Container Park, where the shuttle loop begins and ends. And after my short, ten-to-fifteen minute ride, I have to say: If this is the future of public transit, sign me up.

Keolis General Manager of Las Vegas Operations Francis Julien tells me that while the route is short, it’s actually way more complex than it seems. He calls the test program the “world’s most complex pilot.”

Not only does this little route have lots of stop lights and heavy tourist traffic – you always have to worry about drunk people running out into the road unexpectedly. That’s where the shuttle’s computer-fast reflexes come into play. Read more

Matt Weinberger - Business Insider Australia - 15 Jan 2018