--- title: "New Self-Driving Shuttle in Las Vegas Crashes Just Hours After Launch" description: "Authorities blame human error, but are they right?" date: "2017-11-08" modified: "2017-11-09" authors: - name: "Kyle Cheromcha" job_title: "Editor-in-Chief" link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha" url: "https://www.thedrive.com/news/15914/new-self-driving-shuttle-in-las-vegas-crashes-just-hours-after-launch" categories: - "Car Tech" - "News" - "Self-Driving Tech" tags: - "autonomous" - "Crash" - "EV" - "future" - "Las Vegas" - "self-driving car" - "shuttle" --- # New Self-Driving Shuttle in Las Vegas Crashes Just Hours After Launch ![]() *\www.thedrive.com\* Earlier today, Las Vegas became the first city in America to have a free, electric, self-driving shuttle enter operation. Unfortunately, about an hour later it because the first city in America to have their free, electric, self-driving shuttle involved in an accident, [the *Las Vegas Review-Journal* reports.]() The 11-passenger self-driving shuttle, built by [a French company called Navya]() and sponsored by AAA, was unveiled earlier today to much fanfare as a first-in-the-nation free service for the general public to use. It's programmed to follow a half-mile loop through downtown Las Vegas and pick up passengers and a few designated points. However, it doesn't seem like it's programmed to get out of the way of delivery trucks. Here's what happened: about an hour after the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the shuttle came upon a semi-trailer attempting to back into a loading bay that was perpendicular to the road and stopped short to let the truck do its thing. But the semi driver either didn't see the little electric vehicle or expected it to back up, and the arc of his turn caused the tractor's wheels to clip the front end of the shuttle. No one on board was injured. https://twitter.com/\_/status/928373288421670912 [According to the *Review-Journal,*]() police ticketed the driver for "illegal backing." City officials were quick to throw the human under the...shuttle as well, with one even [going so far as to tell *KSNV News*]() that the whole thing could have been avoided "had the truck had the same sensing equipment that the shuttle has." [That's questionable,]() but it remains true that one of the biggest hurdles for autonomous cars to overcome is [the unpredictability of other human drivers](). In March, a self-driving Volvo XC90 developed by Uber [rolled over after colliding with another car]() whose driver failed to yield like he was supposed to. Speaking of which, the main thing we're wondering is why the damn thing didn't back up when it sensed the truck getting too close—and one passenger apparently had the same reaction. After all, that's a pretty rudimentary part of driving, especially in an urban area where people are often making unsafe moves around you. "The shuttle just stayed still and we were like, ‘oh my gosh, it’s gonna hit us, it’s gonna hit us!’ and then it hit us. And the shuttle didn’t have the ability to move back, either. Like, the shuttle just stayed still," she told *KSNV.* But hey, that's what data is for. An executive with Keolis Transit America, one of the companies involved with running the shuttle, told the *Review-Journal* that it would continue operation after a "diagnostic assessment" "That’s probably the positive point of all this, is that we have extensive data to be able to tell us what occurred and what we could do in the future to improve upon," Bell said. https://twitter.com/\_/status/928332141317955584 It's worth noting that the Navya self-driving shuttle is one of the more [forward-thinking autonomous concepts]() we've seen in real-world use in this country, though similar ideas have already been [tested in Europe.]() The vehicle has no gas pedal, brake pedal, or steering wheel, though an attendant rides along and monitors everything on a computer that's presumably equipped with some sort of kill switch. It uses cameras, light sensors, and GPS to tootle around at speeds up to 25 mph. However, it's only able to follow traffic lights thanks to special transmitters that city officials installed at every intersection along the route. ## Author Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()