In January, public transport company De Lijn announced the launch of two autonomous shuttles in Leuven, operating on line 16, the new line connecting the train station with the station and the borough of Heverlee. According to De Lijn, “a European first for a public transport company.”

The euphoria was short-lived, however, as a test drive with the self-driving shuttle proved a major disappointment for Dorien Meulenijzer, former chair of the municipal council and herself a wheelchair user and accessibility consultant. “The vans are completely inaccessible for wheelchair users,” she told VRTnws.

‘Disappointing’

Dorien Meulenijzer tried to board the shuttle but was unable to. The vehicles do not have a ramp, and the gap between the platform and the vehicle entrance is too large for wheelchair users or people with reduced mobility.

“Disappointing,” she said afterward. “Those vans are packed with technology and are presented as the future. But apparently, a simple ramp wasn’t considered.”

Since the abolition of the reservation requirement, every public transport company bus must be wheelchair accessible. However, accessibility remains a sore point for De Lijn.

Most advanced autonomy technology

According to De Lijn, they initially considered another supplier that did offer wheelchair ramps, but that vehicle did not have the latest autonomous driving software. For the pilot project, they chose the shuttle with the most advanced autonomy technology, even though it lacked accessibility features.

The self-driving WeRide Robobus, developed by the Chinese company WeRide, can carry 8 to 10 passengers and has a maximum speed of about 40 km/hour. The vehicle was designed as a compact autonomous shuttle mainly for short routes such as campuses, airports, or business parks.

Because of its design, it has a relatively high step and a narrow door. There is no built-in wheelchair ramp, and the interior space is very limited, making wheelchair access difficult. As a result, wheelchair users cannot board the vehicle independently.

Accessible shuttle buses do exist, though. Several companies already produce autonomous shuttles designed for wheelchair accessibility. Even WeRide itself has tested versions with wheelchair ramps in other projects. But De Lijn opted for the test drives for a different model.