Beverly Hills Plans Driverless Shuttle

Burney Simpson

Beverly Hills is seeking to operate autonomous shuttle vehicles as part of its public transportation system. The City Council unanimously approved the project recently.

The autonomous shuttles would provide on-demand, point-to-point transportation within the city. Users would request a ride with a smartphone app.Mayor John Mirisch proposed the idea last June in a column for the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Mirisch said the shuttles could reduce congestion and the demand for parking, while increasing mobility and road safety within the city’s 5.7 square miles.

Mirisch believes the shuttle could solve the ‘first mile/last mile’ challenge for riders who will be taking the Purple Line of the Los Angeles Metro subway. Plans call for two Purple Line stops in Beverly Hills, though those may not open until 2026.

Mirisch tells Driverless Transportation that the Beverly Hills shuttle plan is now at the conceptual stage.

“We want to set out a vision, look at the technology, and determine how far away we are from that,” Mirisch said. “We will also look at the legal environment, and determine how we can get to our goal.”

Under phase one of the city’s plan, Beverly Hills will develop partnerships with autonomous vehicle manufacturers. It will also be working with regulators and policy makers to create an outline of the project.

Beverly Hill’s shuttle concept comes shortly after a proposed $121 billion, 40-year transportation plan from the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority. The county is projected to grow by 2.4 million people by 2057.

But the Authority’s plan doesn’t include driverless vehicles, Mirisch said.

“Autonomous vehicles can transform and revolutionize transportation. When you are considering spending that much money, let’s look at this disruptive technology, and find if it can it grow mobility, convenience, safety, and so on,” said Mirisch.

“(The Authority) plans to use yesterday’s transportation – heavy rail, buses. If we want to build for the next 100 years, we should look at the technology of the next 100 years.”

The first driverless shuttle in the U.S. is scheduled to start operating this summer at the Bishop Ranch business park in San Ramon, Calif. (See “Driverless Shuttle Gives Momentum to GoMentum Station”). The shuttle will be operated by EasyMile, a French firm that has run a number of driverless projects in Europe.

Photo of Beverly Hills by Prayitno, 2011.