Last week, members of the 511NY Rideshare team had the opportunity to participate in a demonstration of the self-driving shuttles at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The Navy Yard is currently home to six self-driving Optimus Ride vehicles, open to both the public and employees. It has stops at Wegmans and the NYC Ferry among others and operates daily from 7:00am to 10:30pm. Ferry riders can ride the Optimus Ride for free!

The vehicles can be used both on public and private roads with permission and they aim to have ADA compliant vehicles by 2021. 

Brooklyn joins Boston MA, Paradise Valley CA and Reston VA in implementing these Optimus Ride vehicles - we're excited to see where else these cool rides pop up! 

Our partner, Nick Palumbo at Suffolk County Community College “really appreciated the opportunity to see and learn about Optimus Ride’s Brooklyn Navy Yard pilot project."

Nick continued: "It is a very exciting to see this type of sustainable transportation technology being deployed in a real world setting. Based on the rides we took, the reaction of other riders to the service, and the metrics that were shared with us, it is clear that this model has real promise for transforming urban and suburban mobility. I look forward to seeing further rollouts in our area, and am very hopeful that we can explore bringing these types of services to our campuses at Suffolk County Community College.”