NHTSA Halts Self-Driving Shuttle Test in Fla.

October 24, 2018—The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Monday said it had ordered Transdev North America to immediately stop transporting school children in Florida in a driverless shuttle, as the testing could be putting them at “inappropriate” risk, reported Insurance Journal.

Transdev’s use of its EZ10 Generation II driverless shuttle in the Babcock Ranch community in southwest Florida was “unlawful and in violation of the company’s temporary importation authorization,” the auto safety agency, known as NHTSA, said in an order late Friday.

NHTSA gave Transdev permission in March to temporarily import the driverless shuttle for testing and demonstration purposes, but not as a school bus, according to the report. On Monday, the company confirmed it had agreed to stop a planned six-week pilot project one week earlier.