Future Disney transportation..

[acarsme123]

does anyone think Disney will ever explore self driving car tech once it’s perfected in the next 5-10 years as an additional offering for park transportation for guests? How amazing would that be to be able to go to a kiosk and summons a self driving pod of sorts to be able to take you to other parks, Disney Springs, or back to your hotel?

I actually think it could be done pretty easily by Disney. They control their park environment and layout. They could have dedicated road lanes for this and also have embedded sensors in these lanes for additional safety in addition to the onboard pod sensors. Just an interesting thought I had....

 

[joelkfla]

I see nothing to prevent it, especially considering that an autonomous vehicle test and development facility is being built just down the road.

Even if Disney doesn't jump in, it's likely that autonomous Uber or other ride-hailing vehicles will be common by then. Uber has been running safety-driver-monitored autonomous vehicles for the past year or so in other cities.

 

[NotUrsula]

Disney is in the testing stages of autonomous buses that move cast members around backstage. According to the LATimes, they anticipate starting to put guests in them next year. However, these vehicles are the size of a large shuttle van, not a private car.
http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-disney-shuttles-20170428-story.html

It seems to me that the primary initial value of them for guests would be as replacements for the current parking lot trams, at least in the middle of the day when demand is down. Doing that would be easiest and really cut down on staffing costs for parking operations.