Autonomous Vehicles Give Individuals with Disabilities Independence
This is one of the five self-driving vans now serving the northern Minnesota community of Grand Rapids. The vans are part of a program called "goMARTI," which stands for Minnesota's Autonomous Rural Transit Initiative.
The project’s self-driving vans always have a human operator in the driver’s seat, poised to take over in complicated situations. But the computers are in control about 90% of the time, and they’ve given 5,000 rides since 2022 without any accidents, organizers say.
The project is funded through the spring of 2027 with more than $13 million from federal, state, and local sources, much of it coming from the 2021 federal infrastructure bill.