SHERPA Engineering was a partner in the experimentation of autonomous shuttles by the RATP on the private site of CEA PARIS-SACLAY.
This experiment was part of the SESNA project, a national collaborative R&D project on autonomous vehicles financed by BPI France and the Ile-de-France Region, which involved, in addition to the RATP group, the CEA, Bureau Veritas, SHERPA Engineering, BMCP and EasyMile.
The two autonomous and 100% electric shuttles of EasyMile, with a maximum capacity of 12 people (6 seats), ran for a month and a half, every working day, from 10am to 4pm on a 2.6km loop, serving 7 stops. The shuttles were free of charge with a high frequency in order to make the service attractive to the 6,000 people (employees of the CEA or partners, service providers as well as students and visitors) who use the site daily.
The CEA Saclay site is a real “scientific city”, offering a traffic-calmed urban environment and providing a unique testing place for RATP.
The shuttles interacted with other vehicles on the site, pedestrians and cyclists, managed the crossing of intersections and pedestrian crossings, took speed bumps and used roundabouts. An operator was present in the vehicles.
