Highway Accident Brief: Low-Speed Collision Between Truck-Tractor and Autonomous Shuttle, Las Vegas, Nevada, November 8, 2017

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 National Transportation Safety Board determines that 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.

• Record URL:
  • https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HAB1906.pdf
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• Summary URL:
  • https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Pages/HAB1906.aspx
• Corporate Authors:

  National Transportation Safety Board

  Washington, DC  United States 
• Publication Date: 2019-7-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos;
• Pagination: 16p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Backing (Driving); Crash causes; Crash investigation; Manual control; Shuttle buses; Tractor trailer combinations; Traffic crashes
• Geographic Terms: Las Vegas (Nevada)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Motor Carriers; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01713089
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: NTSB/HAB-19/06, Accident ID: HWY18FH001
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 31 2019 3:31PM