Orlando’s downtown autonomous bus is ready to start testing later this summer | Orlando Area News | Orlando

Orlando is mobilizing a fare-free autonomous bus later this summer.

The (painstakingly slow, might we add) driverless bus will travel to parts of Parramore and Creative Village, and link to Lynx’s downtown bus station.

A funding agreement of $500,000 from Orlando’s City Council was signed last month to propel the driverless pilot. In the agreement, Lake Nona-based company Beep is to provide two autonomous buses, each carrying at least eight riders, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

Beep came to Orlando in 2019, where it started up a network of autonomous shuttles called Move Nona (which, if you can believe it, moved even slower) and built its headquarters. The company has the largest and longest autonomous bus network at one location in North America, including a network of eight shuttles across five routes in Lake Nona.

The test will start in late August and run through April 2024, as reported by OS. The buses will move daily along Garland Avenue, Amelia Street, Terry Avenue and Livingston Street at off-peak hours. There will still be traditional buses on the route.

The autonomous buses will stay in dedicated lanes and use the special traffic signals for buses. There will be little interaction with other vehicles in regular lanes, and city officials are preparing traffic signal timing to help the buses.

The project is meant to ease the stress of commuters and offer college students more easily accessible routes passing the OCPS ACE school, downtown UCF and Valencia campuses.

The city plans to expand autonomous buses into other neighborhoods, such as Ivanhoe Village, SoDo or elsewhere, OS reports.