The location of the inauguration was not chosen by chance.
It is in the vertical assembly hall of the latest Ariane 5 rockets that the ArianeGroup autonomous electric shuttle was unveiled on Wednesday.
Called Navetty, this 100% French shuttle was developed in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) by the company EasyMile and the passenger compartment is made in the Ligier factories in Vichy (Puy-de-Dôme).
The project, led by Vedecom, a research institute on the mobility of the future, is supported and funded by ArianeGroup, Transdev, EasyMile and the Yvelines departmental council.
The shuttle, 4 meters long and weighing 3 tonnes, can accommodate 12 passengers.
The idea is the implementation for three years of a mobility service with autonomous electric shuttles without operator on board on the site of Mureaux, representative of the complexity of an agglomeration.
ArianeGroup, specializing in project management and the conduct of major civil and military space programs, covers 92 hectares (50 buildings) and has 2,700 employees.
Comparable to a city district.
Take the shuttle instead of the car
“Autonomous public transport is coming and will arrive long before cars and driverless taxis,” says Gilbert Gagnaire, Founding President of EasyMile.
The relative simplicity of a transit service makes it ideal for autonomous technology.
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Ariane is launching its autonomous shuttle with the support of the Yvelines departmental council.
DR
Navetty is the result of three years of work and a first step unique in Europe which will validate the technology and the economic model, a necessary condition for the deployment of a large-scale service initiated on public roads in the Seine valley.
By 2023, the Campus des Mureaux, a hotspot for innovation in Ile-de-France, will indeed be linked to the Mureaux stations (2 kilometers away) then to the Clairières de Verneuil-sur-Seine (3 kilometers ).
The flow is particularly important at rush hour, because the journeys are made mainly by car.
"Providing real services to populations in remote areas"
"We provide the last mile service," says Philippe Watteau, CEO of Vedecom.
There is a double stake, both technological and social.
Accelerate the transition from applied research on electric and autonomous vehicles to operational implementation and provide real services to populations in remote areas where traditional transport costs are too high.
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Read also Driverless shuttles to conquer Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
The Yvelines departmental council, which has supported the Vedecom Institute since its inception, in particular through funding of 20 million euros for innovative mobility, is funding the project to the tune of 2.5 million euros.