The first commercial deployment on public roads for Designated Driver’s teleoperation technology will happen following Texas A&M University’s decision to add the system to its autonomous shuttles.
Designated Driver will remotely provide guidance to the shuttles operating in downtown Bryan, Texas, USA, initially authorising the vehicles to proceed at four-way intersections and stops.
Additional functionality will be added over time, including the ability to provide the shuttle’s autonomy system with alternative routes, when needed, enabling it to safely navigate around unanticipated obstacles.
“The Designated Driver system provides a powerful safety net for our driverless shuttles,” said Dr Srikanth Saripalli, an associate professor in the J. Mike Walker ’66 department of mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M, who has overseen the shuttle project since its inception in October 2018.
“Among our most important observations over the past six months, we found that four-way intersections and stops were the most common scenarios where our safety driver had to intervene.”
While Designated Driver’s technology will eventually replace the safety driver, the shuttles will continue to include a safety navigator who will provide support and educate passengers on the technology. The shuttles will be controlled and monitored by a dedicated teleoperations center at Texas A&M.
