Autonomous Vehicles Operating in New York City

The Optimus Ride program is a fleet of self-driving vehicles that take employees within the Brooklyn Navy Yard as well as ferry commuters. This is a pretty cool sight to see, and I've never been in an autonomous vehicle before. Now I get to experience it firsthand and understand how this all works.

Optimus Ride is an MIT spin-off that develops self-driving technology. However, instead of trying to take over Main streets and roads, Optimus limited its development to geofence locations areas that the company can completely map with well-established boundaries. These areas include residential communities, mixed developments, campuses, resorts, and more.

So, how does this all work? There are two technicians who have to be inside the vehicle at all times just to keep an eye on everything and make sure it's a safe ride. They monitor the software that drives the vehicle, but for all intents and purposes, the car is driving itself. The computer and the software are doing all the thinking, not humans.

I'm okay with them being here, I would like that to be an option if things go wrong. Self-driving vehicles can move through these areas at about 25 miles per hour. The Brooklyn Navy Yard is a 300-acre industrial park, and the companies started here last August. Rides run seven days a week and meet passengers going to and from a recently opened ferry landing. This is free for anyone within the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

There are couple stops on this specific route, and people take it to get to the ferry or to work, completing the last mile of their commute. Seeing how this vehicle handles human drivers is pretty wild. It's like watching a computer think on its own, just hunk by itself that would be cool then it's a true New York vehicle.

The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Boston. They have been operating these vehicles at the Seaport District there since 2017 last year it expanded to a development in Reston Virginia here to Brooklyn and to Fairfield California their next goal is to be fully driverless later this year.

This approach with autonomous vehicles is within this geofence sort of campus location, but people think of self-driving cars as being real-life traffic situations. Yes, this definitely has to deal with that in this geo fenced area, but it's not exactly fully autonomous, for now this feels like the most practical application of self-driving cars.

I was checking out because there's a jaywalker that just went by, and it handled that huh yeah I would have told you if we hit the jaywalker don't worry

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enmy hands his hands are moving friggin robots driving this car this is pretty well so autonomous vehicles are actually operating here in New York City they're here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this is the Optimus ride program it is a fleet of self-driving vehicles that take employees within the Brooklyn Navy Yard as well as ferry commuters it is really cool I've never been in an autonomous vehicle before I'm gonna get a demo and understand how this all works here we go Optimus Ride is an MIT spin-off that develops self-driving technology but instead of trying to take over Main streets and roads Optimus limited its development to geofence locations areas that the company can completely map with well-established boundaries those are for example residential communities mixed developments campuses resorts and more alright so here is how this all works there's two technicians that have to be inside the vehicle at all times just to sort of keep their eye on everything and make sure it's a safe ride and everything's sort of going to plan monitor the software that drives the vehicle but for all intents and purposes the car is driving itself the computer and the software is driving the car I'm okay with them being here I would like that to be an option if things go wrong the self-driving vehicles can move through these areas at about 25 miles per hour the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a 300 acre industrial park and the companies started here last August rides run seven days a week and meet passengers going to and from a recently opened ferry landing this is free for anyone within the Brooklyn Navy Yard there's couple stops on this specific route and people take it to get to the ferry take it to get to work complete the last mile of their commute see so it accounts for awful drivers wow that's that's some pretty sick maneuvering you got to do that a lot in Manhattan a lot of people just pull over for no reason and all that's driving this is just a laptop sitting on this gentleman slap and it counts for all these obstacles in the world huh okay this looks complicated so we got like a truck coming now and it sort of just was like hey I don't like that maybe and there it goes it's pretty wild seeing a computer like think and I feel like that's what we're experiencing right now is like seeing how the vehicle deals with human drivers this thing just hunk by itself that would be cool then it's a true New York vehicle here the company was founded in 2015 and is based in Boston it has been operating these vehicles at the Seaport District there since 2017 last year it expanded to a development in Reston Virginia here to Brooklyn and to Fairfield California their next goal is to be fully driverless later this year the ride is complete so this is a really interesting approach with autonomous vehicles it's within this geofence sort of campus location but people think of self-driving cars they think of real-life traffic situations and yes this definitely has to deal with that in this geo fenced area but it's not exactly fully autonomous but for now this feels like the most practical application of self-driving cars and cool did well I was checking out because there's a jaywalker that just went by it handled that huh yeah I would have told you if we hit the jaywalker don't worrymy hands his hands are moving friggin robots driving this car this is pretty well so autonomous vehicles are actually operating here in New York City they're here at the Brooklyn Navy Yard this is the Optimus ride program it is a fleet of self-driving vehicles that take employees within the Brooklyn Navy Yard as well as ferry commuters it is really cool I've never been in an autonomous vehicle before I'm gonna get a demo and understand how this all works here we go Optimus Ride is an MIT spin-off that develops self-driving technology but instead of trying to take over Main streets and roads Optimus limited its development to geofence locations areas that the company can completely map with well-established boundaries those are for example residential communities mixed developments campuses resorts and more alright so here is how this all works there's two technicians that have to be inside the vehicle at all times just to sort of keep their eye on everything and make sure it's a safe ride and everything's sort of going to plan monitor the software that drives the vehicle but for all intents and purposes the car is driving itself the computer and the software is driving the car I'm okay with them being here I would like that to be an option if things go wrong the self-driving vehicles can move through these areas at about 25 miles per hour the Brooklyn Navy Yard is a 300 acre industrial park and the companies started here last August rides run seven days a week and meet passengers going to and from a recently opened ferry landing this is free for anyone within the Brooklyn Navy Yard there's couple stops on this specific route and people take it to get to the ferry take it to get to work complete the last mile of their commute see so it accounts for awful drivers wow that's that's some pretty sick maneuvering you got to do that a lot in Manhattan a lot of people just pull over for no reason and all that's driving this is just a laptop sitting on this gentleman slap and it counts for all these obstacles in the world huh okay this looks complicated so we got like a truck coming now and it sort of just was like hey I don't like that maybe and there it goes it's pretty wild seeing a computer like think and I feel like that's what we're experiencing right now is like seeing how the vehicle deals with human drivers this thing just hunk by itself that would be cool then it's a true New York vehicle here the company was founded in 2015 and is based in Boston it has been operating these vehicles at the Seaport District there since 2017 last year it expanded to a development in Reston Virginia here to Brooklyn and to Fairfield California their next goal is to be fully driverless later this year the ride is complete so this is a really interesting approach with autonomous vehicles it's within this geofence sort of campus location but people think of self-driving cars they think of real-life traffic situations and yes this definitely has to deal with that in this geo fenced area but it's not exactly fully autonomous but for now this feels like the most practical application of self-driving cars and cool did well I was checking out because there's a jaywalker that just went by it handled that huh yeah I would have told you if we hit the jaywalker don't worry\n"