Star Tribune
SouthWest Transit debuting autonomous vehicles for on-demand rides in Eden Prairie
Imagine riding a short city bus or minivan with an operator behind the wheel who isn’t actually driving. That could be the future of public transportation — and it’s coming to Eden Prairie this fall.
SouthWest Transit will debut the metro area’s first autonomous microtransit service, teaming up with May Mobility to offer another option for on-demand rides.
“It’s been our mission to be on the cutting edge and innovative in transit solutions. This is the next evolution of that,” said Erik Hansen, CEO of the transit agency that has provided service in the southwest suburbs of Eden Prairie, Chaska and Chanhassen since 1986. “It’s about providing better service to customers.”
SouthWest was believed to be the first transit agency in Minnesota to use small vans to offer Uber-style door-to-door on-demand rides when it launched Prime in 2015. The service in which passengers use an app or call customer service to book a trip provided more than 142,600 rides last year and “continues to grow,” Hansen said, noting usage is up about 5% this year over 2023.
Adding autonomous vehicles will help expand Prime, Hansen said.
SouthWest Transit will start with five wheelchair-accessible Toyota Sienna minivans outfitted with cameras and sensors that can “see” other vehicles on the road along with pedestrians, sidewalks, traffic lights, buildings and even snowbanks, said Daisy Wall of May Mobility, a Michigan-based company that develops and deploys driverless vehicles.
Software onboard “simulates scenarios in a short period of time and offers options for the vehicle to pursue,” Wall said.
Passengers may find it a bit disconcerting to see the steering wheel move without the driver touching it, Wall admits. But the operator can take control of the vehicle — steering wheel, pedal and brakes — if the situation warrants, she said.
The goal eventually is to remove the driver by the time May Mobility’s three-year contract with SouthWest ends, Wall said.
May Mobility has brought autonomous vehicles to transit systems in Arlington, Texas; Sun City, Ariz.; Miami; Detroit; Ann Arbor, Mich.; and Grand Rapids, Mich.
In Eden Prairie, the autonomous vehicles will operate only in the “Golden Triangle” area around the Opus campus and the Southwest Station off Hwy. 212 and Prairie Center Drive. The shuttles are aimed at providing first- and last-mile transportation for those who arrive by regular fixed-route or express buses, or light rail trains when the Green Line begins operations in 2027.
Autonomous vehicles will operate on the same schedule as Prime, 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 6 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Saturdays.
SouthWest Transit riders will get their first chance to see the autonomous vehicles during the State Fair when the agency begins telling riders about them and puts the vehicles on display. The agency also plans to do community engagement sessions to “make sure people feel comfortable and know how it works,” Hansen said.
The agency also will be conducting on-road testing before the official launch happens sometime in September or October.
“This is probably the future of the transit industry,” Hansen said. “We are excited to be a part of it early on.”
The trial included testimony from a Towson University marketing professor who conducted a survey about the advertisements.
The pictures are actually tightly controlled by contracts negotiated between the models and the magazines, said Chamberlin, a modelling agent who testified during the trial. A 30-year veteran of the industry who has represented Brooke Shields, Tyra Banks, Claudia Schiffer and others, Chamberlin during his testimony pulled back the curtain on the high-stakes negotiations that take place for supermodels, saying none of the images that the Cajun Club used were intended for strip club advertisements.
“We know exactly what they’ll be shooting, what product, and what type of work, and then we know how that’s going to be distributed and any other questions. It’s all negotiated before the model sets foot onto the set,” he testified.
Even if the women had consented to the use of the photographs in Cajun Club advertisements, Chamberlin said, it would have cost the club more than $1.2 million in fees.
The jury ruled in favor of the women and said they were owed amounts ranging from $1,500 to $15,000.
A freeway ramp in downtown Minneapolis used by thousands of drivers each day closed Monday morning and won’t reopen for five weeks.
Minnesota Department of Transportation crews shut down the ramp from northbound I-35W to eastbound I-94 at 5 a.m. Monday and it won’t reopen until Nov. 29
In addition, both directions of I-94 will be reduced to two lanes between 11th Avenue S. and Franklin Avenue.
The closures will allow crews to construct crossovers that motorists will use in 2025 when MnDOT begins maintenance work on five bridges along I-94 between downtown Minneapolis and the Franklin Avenue bridge that crosses I-94.
Drivers needing to get from northbound I-35W to eastbound I-94 will be directed to go north on I-35W to Hwy. 36 and south on I-35E.
Next year, both directions of I-94 will be reduced to two lanes between Hwy. 55/Hiawatha Avenue and the Franklin Avenue bridge.
The preference, he said, was to arrest Sawchak outside, but “in this case, this suspect is a recluse and does not come out of the house.”
City Council members criticized MPD for their handling of the case, expressing outrage at the department’s inability to protect a resident “from a clear, persistent and amply reported threat posed by his neighbor.”
The Moturis have reported to police at least 19 incidents of vandalism, property destruction, theft, harassment, hate speech and other verbal threats, including threats of assault, involving Sawchak since last fall — shorty after the couple moved in. Sawchak is white and Moturi is Black.
Over the weekend, as frustration continued to boil over about the lack of a resolution in the case, several more council members released statements demanding that MPD move in to make an arrest.
“Our Chief of Police is hiding behind excuses, and our Mayor…is just hiding,” Council Member Emily Koski wrote on X.
Less than two hours later, from the scene of an unrelated fatal shooting at a homeless encampment, O’Hara acknowledged that his police force failed to protect Moturi and issued an apology.
