Olli hits the brakes - Knoxville rollout of self-driving trolley on hold

Olli, the self-driving trolley expected on Knoxville streets this spring, is moving slowly over some bumps on the road to service here.

The next 30 days will determine whether Olli is good enough to hit Knoxville’s streets this year, said Kim Bumpas, president of Visit Knoxville.

Local Motors, which makes Olli, changed its partners on robotics and other technical issues, she said.

“That’s where our delays came from,” Bumpas said. A representative of Local Motors did not respond to emailed questions Wednesday.

The electric vehicle debuted in June 2016. Local Motors envisioned it as a student transport for colleges, or shuttle to parking lots. In August of that year, the company announced it would build Olli – which is partially 3-D printed – in 2017 at its Pellissippi Parkway “microfactory.”

“Tennessee is one of the first eight states to allow driverless cars on public roads. Knoxville is the town in which Local Motors 3D printed its first car,” Local Motors CEO John Rogers said in a 2017 news release.

In April 2017, Olli was introduced at a Market Square ceremony, with local testing planned for fall 2017 and use expected on downtown streets in spring 2018. The initial idea was for Knoxville to get two Ollis, one for regular use and one for backup. That’s “not technically off the table,” but talks continue on whether the city will get one or two, Bumpas said.

Visit Knoxville would lease – rather than buy, as originally discussed – one or two Ollis from Local Motors, she said. The agency would pay monthly to cover some maintenance and route programming,
Bumpas said.

“That’s still being discussed. We have not reached a final agreement on that,” she said.

In April 2017, Bumpas said Visit Knoxville had put down a $20,000 deposit on the vehicles.

Jeff Branham, Knoxville’s chief traffic engineer, is part of a group of transportation-related agencies called the Knoxville Autonomous Vehicle Deployment Advisory Team. Its first task is to evaluate Olli, running it through real-world situations and recommending uses based on its performance. He hasn’t yet seen it in “fully autonomous mode,” he said via email. That’s coming April 5, at Local Motors’ testing ground in Maryland.

“It is my understanding that Local Motors is prepared to demonstrate this vehicle is ready to be used by municipal customers,” Branham wrote. “Public safety is our greatest priority and we want to make sure we are doing everything reasonably possible to evaluate the technology and performance of the Olli before we deploy it on the street.”

The vehicle displayed here last year was “a shell of an Olli,” not a working model, Bumpas said. If all goes well in Maryland, the real thing should arrive in Knoxville in May for more closed-course testing by the city, she said.

Olli is expected to use 3D mapping, plus sensors on-board and embedded in city infrastructure, enabling it to distinguish between static objects and moving ones. Branham said.

At its local introduction, Mayor Madeline Rogero said a human operator would be on board, at least at first, to take control if needed. But that may not be necessary, Bumpas said.

“It’s possibly going to run on its own when we roll it out,” Bumpas said.

Olli seats eight and would travel 15 mph at most, she said. Discussion of routes is tentative, but they would probably be preprogrammed tours, during which Olli’s voice would tell stories about the landmarks it passed, Bumpas said. Exactly where and when it runs will depend in part on how easy it is to use Olli’s digital mapping system, she said.

“And it probably won’t be free,” Bumpas said. But the price would probably be a few dollars, which people would pay for the novelty, she said.

It would likely also serve as a shuttle at festivals, but not to pick up guests at downtown hotels, Bumpas said. The electric vehicle’s limited range and recharge time will limit its use, she said.