May Mobility announced that over 10,000 riders have used its goMARTI autonomous vehicle service in Grand Rapids, Minnesota since its launch in September 2022. Grand Rapids, a rural community known for extreme winter weather, provided a challenging environment for the service, demonstrating May Mobility’s operational capabilities.
May Mobility, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), The PLUM Catalyst, and the city of Grand Rapids, offers an accessible transportation option that supplements existing services. The service includes wheelchair-accessible vehicles and operates during evenings and weekends. According to MnDOT surveys, 98% of riders reported positive experiences with the service, a 23% increase since its launch. Additionally, 98% of riders felt safe in the vehicles, resulting in a 30% increase in comfort levels with the technology compared to pre-ride responses.
May Mobility’s autonomous vehicles use Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) technology, which performs real-time reinforcement learning to handle unforeseen situations by analyzing thousands of scenarios per second for safer rides.
The Grand Rapids service provided May Mobility with valuable data on operations in harsh winter conditions. With extensive data collected from over 160,000 miles of driving, the goMARTI service has contributed to the development of algorithms for safer autonomous driving in various environments.
“Our autonomous vehicles handled the challenging weather well, showing that MPDM was able to manage situations outside our training set,” said Edwin Olson, CEO of May Mobility. “With the data from these 10,000 riders, we will continue to improve our goMARTI service and help communities across the country address transportation challenges.”
The goMARTI service is free and includes approximately 70 pick-up and drop-off points, such as grocery stores, medical sites, and community centers. The fleet consists of five autonomous vehicles, three of which are wheelchair-accessible. MnDOT, The PLUM Catalyst, and May Mobility are working to expand the service’s hours and area, and plan to add more wheelchair-accessible vehicles.
“I have an autoimmune disorder called lymphedema. It’s really hard to walk around without my legs stinging,” said goMARTI’s 10,000th rider, Kaylien Miller. “If I didn’t have goMARTI, then I’d constantly have to depend on my parents for rides to work, around town, and to hang out with my friends because I don’t have a license.”