Riverside wants to become ‘the new Detroit.’ Can this self-driving electric bus get it there?

There is a little shuttle bus in the Inland Empire that’s fueled with big aspirations.

It’s electric, tops out at 25 mph, and can only go on a pre-designated route set up by the Riverside Transit Agency.

But here’s a catch — it also drives itself.

As of Monday, commuters in Riverside are the first in the country to ride a fully self-driving, publicly accessible bus that is deployed by a city transit agency.

It’s one small step for public transportation commuters, and one giant leap toward Riverside becoming the next Motor City, or so the mayor hopes.

“I like to say I have no lesser ambition than to be the new Detroit for vehicle manufacturing,” Riverside Mayor Lock Dawson said. “Riverside is it, we are going to do this for the 21st century.”

In October 2023, the Riverside City Council approved a two-year pilot program to have the RTA operate, staff and maintain three automated, fully electric Ohmio shuttle buses. The first bus began serving the Riverside Municipal Airport this week, followed by one in downtown Riverside and another at UC Riverside by the end of the program’s first year.

To date, other iterations of self-driving buses around the country are limited to private roads or properties, or rely on drivers to lend the occasional hand or foot for certain parts of the route. But not Riverside’s, where officials say the whole route is mapped out and the person behind the wheel is there for just-in-case scenarios, helping passengers and communicating back with RTA headquarters, according to Assistant City Manager Rafael Guzman.

While the experience isn’t supposed to change much for passengers, it can still feel like a sign of big changes to come.

“Now, the robots are trying to replace us,” quipped bus rider Patrick Gray, 32, while he waited recently at a Riverside stop for a traditional bus to work. “I’m used to humans driving things, operating things, with this new age of AI and robotic stuff, it’s just, you know, it’s crazy. … It shows us that we are moving into a different age of life.”

A touch screen inside the Ohmio autonomous self-driving shuttle controls everything.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

The program is funded by the Riverside Transit Agency, South Coast Air Quality Management District, Ohmio and the city of Riverside. As part of the deal, Ohmio moved its headquarters from New Zealand to the Inland Empire city, establishing it as the company’s research, development, testing and designated point of sale.

Over its first five years, the company is expected to produce between 500 and 750 buses, which would generate more than $2 million in sales tax for the city. Ohmio buses also operate in New Zealand, Australia, South Korea and Luxembourg. There was a pilot program in New York that ran for four months out of JFK International Airport’s long-term parking lot, but that has since concluded.

The program will cost the $2.5 million to relocate Ohmio’s operations to Riverside. Both the city and AQMD are contributing $1 million each and the RTA is chipping in the final $500,000. Each bus sale is expected to generate about $26,250 in sales tax revenue for the city, according to the city’s partnership announcement. As part of the agreement, Ohmio has committed to creating 25 local jobs over the first three years of the program.

One of the first staffers to work on the Ohmio buses is Kimberly Quamina, an RTA worker for 39 years. She spent Tuesday morning learning the ropes of her new role on the bus for the next four months as riders got on and off.

“I’m hoping to retire on one of these buses, that’ll be nice,” Quamina said.

One of her passengers, Nataly Zuniga, said she and her family decided to ride the “funny looking” bus after having lunch at the Riverside Airport Cafe. During the ride Tuesday, the bus made a sudden hard stop when it detected a car on the opposite side of the intersection, surprising Zuniga and the other passengers.

“The detection is too far away,” Zuniga said. “I think they have to narrow it down, it detects anything and that’s where [the bus] stops.”

Despite the sudden stop, she said she felt safe riding the bus and would definitely be open to riding them out in the busier roads.

For now, though, their role in public transportation is on the outskirts.

“In a place like California … these can help fill some gaps that were created,” said Juan Matute, UCLA’s deputy director of the Institute of Transportation Studies. “This provides another option for when maybe there’s lower ridership to justify transit or maybe they want something that can circulate on the smaller streets a little bit more.”

Ohmio’s arrival in Riverside follows two other clean energy companies that have also recently set up in the city: Voltu, which manufactures medium-duty all-electric trucks; and Hyundai Rotem, which manufactures hydrogen trains.

The buses will follow routes that tap into already existing electric vehicle charging infrastructure in the city and will charge overnight or when not in service, said Zayn Mashat, Ohmio’s director of business development, in an email. At first, they will motor along at a max 15 mph, but will eventually speed up, company officials said. They will collect data along the way and share it with the RTA, which passes it along to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Department of Motor Vehicles in adherence with state and federal law, according to Guzman.

The zero-emission all-electric mini-buses will be operated by the Riverside Transit Agency and will travel on a loop near the Riverside Airport and UC Riverside.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

They are also equipped with sensors to detect surroundings and has its stops pre-programmed in, though they can be skipped as needed by the human on board.

“We’re very confident that this is going to be a successful deployment and we have paid particular attention, especially the City Council, with respect to the safety dimensions,” said Guzman.

Now up and running, travelers should consider the Ohmio buses as their first or last leg of their journey, officials say. The first route is operating on a new route, while the two that follow are expected to blend new and existing RTA routes together.