West Sacramento Considering Driverless Shuttle Buses

WEST SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — The City of West Sacramento is "kicking the tires" on a driverless shuttle bus.

On Tuesday, city officials and the makers of Transdev, an autonomous vehicle company, showed how the bus would work.

The EZ-10, as it's called, is described as a train but with virtual tracks.

The route is programmed in and off you go.

City officials are looking at the slow-moving vehicle -- it goes between 8 and 15 miles an hour -- as one possible way to help transport people to destinations along the riverfront. Each car holds a dozen people, six seated, six standing.

So, how does it run?

Dick Alexander, vice president of Transdev, tells CBS13, "It runs on a battery, The battery life is about 10 hours on it, depends on how hot of a day and how much air conditioning is being pushed through it."

Each shuttle bus costs $200,000, and no final decision has been made on whether the City of West Sacramento will use them.

But Alexander's sales pitch was impressive to many.

He goes on to say, "If you wanted a vehicle that's going to run all day to move people point to point along a specific route like you have here along the riverfront, it's pretty ideal to do that."