May Mobility, a developer of autonomous driving technology, says that more than 10,000 riders have used its goMARTI autonomous vehicle service in Grand Rapids, Minnesota since its launch in September 2022.
Grand Rapids is a rural community known for extreme winter weather patterns and steep snow banks. This milestone demonstrates May Mobility’s ability to operate under challenging and diverse circumstances while becoming a trusted and vital resource for the community.
May Mobility, the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), The PLUM Catalyst and the city of Grand Rapids partnered to deliver an accessible transportation option that augments existing transportation.
By providing wheelchair-accessible vehicles and operating in the evenings and on weekends, May Mobility’s autonomous vehicle offerings have earned the rural community’s trust and acceptance.
According to a series of MnDOT rider surveys, 98 percent of riders expressed positive feelings toward the service, up 23 percent since its launch.
Additionally, 98 percent of riders reported feeling safe in the vehicles, leading to a 30 percent increase in their comfort levels with the technology compared to pre-ride responses.
A greater sense of safety and comfort can be attributed in part to May Mobility’s unique approach to autonomous technology.
While many autonomous vehicles rely exclusively on large numbers of pre-programmed examples to “learn” how to drive, May Mobility’s autonomous vehicles learn how to handle never-before-seen situations using the company’s Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology.
MPDM performs real-time reinforcement learning, which allows the vehicle to make educated decisions. It does so by analyzing thousands of possible scenarios every second and discarding potential maneuvers that would put anyone in harm’s way for a safer and more comfortable ride.
Grand Rapids provided May Mobility the opportunity to study operations in harsh winter climate conditions. With thousands of petabytes of data collected from more than 160,000 miles of driving, the goMARTI service has played a crucial role in further improving the technology.
The data collected during snowy conditions has been valuable in developing robust algorithms that contribute to safer autonomous driving in varying environments across May Mobility’s current and upcoming sites.
Edwin Olson says: “Our autonomous vehicles handled the challenging weather very well, showing that MPDM was able to handle situations outside our training set.
“With the priceless data from these 10,000 riders, we will be able to continue to improve our goMARTI service and help communities across the country solve some of their hardest transportation challenges.”
The goMARTI service is free to use and its route includes approximately 70 pick-up and drop-off points including grocery stores, medical sites, and community and recreation centers.
May Mobility’s fleet of five autonomous vehicles includes three that are wheelchair-accessible, providing a much-needed transportation option to people with mobility disabilities.
Currently, MnDOT, The PLUM Catalyst and May Mobility are working to expand goMARTI’s hours of operation and service area, and plan to add additional wheelchair-accessible vehicles to its fleet.
goMARTI’s 10,000th rider, Kaylien Miller, says: “I have an autoimmune disorder called lymphedema. It’s really hard to walk around without my legs stinging.
“If I didn’t have goMARTI, then I’d constantly have to depend on my parents for rides to work, rides around town, and to hang out with my friends because I don’t have a license.”
Additional data regarding goMARTI ridership:
- Over 7,500 autonomous rides have been successfully completed, and 29 percent of these rides carried two or more riders
- Of the 10,000 riders, 91 percent are repeat customers
- The average ride rating is 4.95 out of 5 stars from over 1,200 reviews
- 8 percent of rides included WAV (wheelchair-accessible vehicle) requests
- The program doubled in ridership in the past seven months since its launch in September 2022
- According to riders, the top three reasons for using the service are for daily errands, commuting to work and leisurely activities
- Based on rider feedback, the newly added Target department store has rapidly become one of the most popular stops
