An autonomous shuttle vehicle pilot in Whitby Ontario, Canada, has suffered a major setback after the vehicle left the roadway and drove headfirst into a tree. The shuttle’s onboard “safety attendant” was hospitalised with severe injuries.

The vehicle is called “WAVE” which stands for Whitby Autonomous Vehicle Electric and was being tested in a partnership between SmartCone Technologies, AutoGuardian By SmartCone, the Town of Whitby, Region of Durham, Durham Region Transit (DRT), Metrolinx, Nokia Canada and others.

The vehicle took a six-kilometre route around the Whitby region to a GO Transit train station that was touted as “North America’s longest autonomous shuttle deployment”. In August 2021 the vehicle started on-road testing and route learning, then started carrying passengers in late November.

The WAVE shuttle was part of a pilot project to assess the operational, financial and customer service benefits of autonomous vehicles in public transit. As a safety measure the WAVE vehicle’s maximum speed was limited to 20km/h and it operated at all times with a “trained safety attendant on board who can manually take control of the vehicle at any time, if required.” The vehicle itself was equipped with a “triple-redundant system of sensors and cameras that will automatically recognize a situation outside the AV’s operational design domain.” Further “smart infrastructure” was incorporated into signage and markings along the route.

The vehicle was operating on an existing bus route, which the project proponents claimed was a first for North America. Ridership was limited to people over 8 years old, and riders had to be wearing seat belts.

In the evening on 16 December the WAVE was on its route when it left the road and hit a tree. The attendant was the only person onboard at the time, and he suffered what were described as “critical” injuries in the accident.

Transit officials have been considering and planning for autonomous shuttles since 2016. There have always been questions about how the vehicles would operate in winter conditions, including snow, ice and “snowbanks” from snow plows that clear roads. Although the accident happened in mid-December there was no snow on the ground or other winter conditions at the time.  

Following the accident a similar pilot in another part of Toronto that was in testing but had not yet begun accepting passengers was suspended.