Truck backs into Navya driverless shuttle on its first day in Las Vegas
A delivery truck backing into an alley struck a stopped Navya autonomous shuttle carrying seven passengers in downtown Las Vegas on November 8, 2017. No one was hurt.
Key facts
- The collision happened at about 12:07 p.m. on November 8, 2017, on South 6th Street in downtown Las Vegas.
- The Navya Arma shuttle had seven passengers and one attendant aboard, and no one on the shuttle or in the truck was injured.
- According to Navya's incident report cited by the NTSB, the shuttle detected the truck 147.6 feet away and was nearly stopped when the attendant pressed the emergency stop button.
- The truck's right front tire struck the shuttle 11 seconds after the shuttle stopped.
- The NTSB found the truck driver expected the shuttle to stop farther away, and that the attendant was not positioned to take manual control.
What happened
At about 12:07 p.m. on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, a 2017 Navya Arma autonomous shuttle was running a 0.6-mile loop in downtown Las Vegas that starts and ends at Container Park. A 2006 International truck-tractor pulling a refrigerated trailer on a delivery route was backing into an alley west of South 6th Street.
According to Navya’s incident report as summarized by the NTSB and METRO Magazine, the shuttle’s sensors detected the truck at 147.6 feet and tracked it as it backed up. The shuttle began slowing at 98.4 feet and was programmed to stop 9.8 feet from an obstacle. At 10.2 feet, with the shuttle almost stopped, the attendant pressed an emergency stop button. The attendant and passengers waved to get the truck driver’s attention.
Eleven seconds after the shuttle stopped, the truck’s right front tire struck the lower left front of the shuttle. Damage was minor: body damage to the shuttle and an abrasion to a truck tire. None of the seven passengers, the attendant or the truck driver was injured.
The system involved
The Navya Arma is a two-axle, battery-powered shuttle built primarily for autonomous operation. It has no steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator; manual control is through a hand-held controller. It ran only on a predetermined, fully mapped route and used eight lidar units, two stereoscopic cameras and differential GPS. The shuttle was manufactured by Navya and operated by Keolis North America, with an attendant on board.
Before the collision, the hand-held controller was kept in an enclosed storage space at one end of the passenger compartment, and the attendant did not retrieve it during the event.
Investigation and response
The NTSB investigated (HWY18FH001) because the collision involved a highly automated vehicle, even though it was minor. In Highway Accident Brief HAB-19-06 it determined that the probable cause was the truck driver backing into the alley while expecting the shuttle to stop at a sufficient distance to let him complete the maneuver. It cited as a contributing factor that the attendant was not in a position to take manual control of the shuttle in an emergency.
After the crash, Keolis changed its policy so that attendants could remove the controller from storage at the start of a trip and keep it at hand.
Outcomes
- The NTSB published Highway Accident Brief HAB-19-06 in July 2019, citing the truck driver's actions and the attendant's lack of ready access to a manual controller.
- Keolis adopted a policy letting attendants take the hand-held controller out of storage at the start of a trip and keep it available throughout.
Sources
- Low-Speed Collision Between Truck-Tractor and Autonomous ShuttleNTSB
- NTSB completes Las Vegas autonomous shuttle crash investigationMETRO Magazine, July 11, 2019