THE CHALLENGE

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Dashboard

PostBus was looking for a way to test the feasibility and public acceptance of an autonomous mobility service. It selected the city of Sion for an 18-month project where it would use autonomous shuttles to reach an area not easily served by its famous yellow buses — its medieval city center.

The city wanted a service that would be quiet, clean, and require minimal new infrastructure to preserve the area’s charm.

THE SOLUTION

PostBus found electric autonomous shuttles from the French manufacturer Navya, and selected Bestmile’s vehicle agnostic Fleet Orchestration Platform to enable the vehicles to work together as an intelligent fleet for its “SmartShuttle” project.

The Bestmile Platform provides fleet supervision and monitoring, with a dashboard view of operations and a PostBus- branded Traveler App for travelers to view vehicle locations, stops, and schedules. PostBus also uses Bestmile’s touch screen Kiosk interface and its Web Portal to provide information about the service in town and online.

The project started as a pilot with 1.5 km route around Old Town. PostBus provided safety drivers that also welcome travelers to survey their attitudes towards the service. The pilot was so successful that the service was made permanent, and after two years the route was expanded by 1.5 km to reach the city’s train station to provide a “last-kilometer” solution.

While much of the world waits for the arrival of autonomous vehicles on city streets, one city in Switzerland has been operating an autonomous fleet since 2016. PostBus, the Swiss bus operator, has gone from pilot, to production, to expansion of one of the first public autonomous mobility services in the world.

Traveler App Traveler Web Portal

CASE STUDYPOSTBUS - SMARTSHUTTLE

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The shuttles have provided service mornings and afternoons five days a week since 2016.

Since its launch, the shuttles have carried more than 50 000 passengers, growing from 14 000 in 2016. Thousands of travelers now make Sion’s autonomous shuttles a part of their regular transportation.

THE RESULTS

PostBus was able to add a new route and expand it to offer last-mile services. It was also able to assess public support for the service and validate performance for future projects.

THE BENEFITS

Using the data and insights gained in Sion, PostBus plans to replicate the success of the Sion “SmartShuttle” in more cities throughout Switzerland. Starting with an additional last-kilometer service serving the residential community of Uvrier.

FUTURE PLANS

“ Bestmile is an important solution for operating our autonomous fleet of shuttle buses and

supporting a reliable, user-friendly service to the public for PostBus” Jürg Michel

PostBus Product Development New Mobility.

SNAPSHOT

Company:

PostBus

Industry:

Public Transport

Location:

Sion, Switzerland

To facilitate the shuttles’ movement through the city, Sion installed intelligent traffic lights that let the vehicles know when the light is red or green (previously the safety took over) and programmed to navigate roundabouts as another step towards full autonomy.

50 000passengers

4years of operations

3shuttles

Autonomous

Station-based

Fixed routes

Frequency-based

Open access

“ The ‘SmartShuttle’ project has been a marquee project for PostBus,

and we found the right partners in Navya and Bestmile” Jürg Michel,

PostBus Product Development New Mobility.

PARTNERS