About 12:07 p.m. on Wednesday, November 8, 2017, a minor collision occurred on South 6th Street in downtown Las Vegas, Clark County, Nevada, between a truck-tractor combination vehicle, operated by a 48-year-old driver, and a 2017 Navya Arma autonomous shuttle, carrying 7 passengers and a 38-year-old attendant. The shuttle, manufactured by Navya and operated by Keolis North America, was on a 0.6-mile designated loop beginning and ending at a downtown shopping center known as Container Park (the buildings are repurposed shipping containers or modular cubes). The combination vehicle, a 2006 International truck-tractor pulling a 2010 Utility refrigerated trailer, was backing into an alley west of South 6th Street while on a delivery route for US Foods when it struck the shuttle.
The probable cause of the collision between the truck-tractor and the autonomously operated shuttle in Las Vegas, Nevada, was the truck driver’s action of backing into an alley, and his expectation that the shuttle would stop at a sufficient distance from his vehicle to allow him to complete his backup maneuver. Contributing to the cause of the collision was the attendant’s not being in a position to take manual control of the vehicle in an emergency.
