In Paris, a Glimpse of Public Transportation's Driverless Future

The NAVYA. (Credit: Christina Reed) France may be famous for its cheese and wine, but it’s also a longtime leader in driverless transit. The country boasted one of the earliest models of automatic trains in 1983. In Paris, two metro lines currently run without a conductor onboard. And the push toward driverless transportation continues in this city, with several planned upgrades before it plays host to the summer Olympics in 2024. So it was with high expectations and a sense of history that I boarded the driverless Line 1 to the bustling business district of La Défense, just west of the Paris city limits. There, I would try out the newly installed “Navette Autonome,” an autonomous shuttle bus from French company NAVYA. Though the United States has the lead in trying to mainstream automatic cars, NAVYA already has 45 automatic shuttle vans in operation around the world. The company claims ...