The Orlando Fire Department has partnered with Beep, a Florida-based autonomous vehicle company, to make sure they have knowledge of the autonomous shuttles that will soon be part of Lake Nona’s public transportation ecosystem.

“So, today we’re partnered with Beep and the NAVYA corporation to teach first responders how to operate around the Beep autonomous vehicles,” Joe McCluan, a District Chief of the Orlando Fire Department, said. “How to gain access to the vehicles and what to do in case we encounter any type of emergency with the vehicles.”

First responders from fire departments, police, and EMTs at Orlando Fire Department Station 16 in Lake Nona learned about the various systems on the NAVYA AUTONOM shuttle – how to deal with the vehicle in emergency situations, how to disable the shuttle, how to access emergency controls, and how to drive it in manual mode.

“Proactive training is always something we embrace,” said Rich Wales, the Interim Fire Chief of the Orlando Fire Department. “It’s a very different vehicle – you can tell by looking at it, the way it operates.”

Under federal regulations, each Beep vehicle will have an attendant that will be able to operate the car. In Beep’s case, they will do so with an Xbox controller. “With the new generation of technology, especially in the younger community – that’s where a lot of the team members we’re going to be bringing into this business come from,” said Joe Moye, the CEO of Beep. “So, using a device like the Xbox controller was kind of just a natural fit.”

Moye was announced as the first CEO of Beep in April. He has previously served as the general manager of Virtustream, a cloud-service provider that was acquired by Dell, and as the president of Blackbaud’s Enterprise Software Group.

Beep was founded with plans to “offer the next generation of services for passenger mobility to fleet operators in planned communities and low-speed environments across the public and private sector,” according to their website. The Lake Nona shuttles will be their first major project.

The AUTONOM shuttle can travel up to 16 mph along a fixed route, much like a city bus. Up to 15 people can fit in a shuttle, and each has 11 seats. The specific stops have yet to be announced, although they can be expected to be at major areas in Lake Nona. Beep’s fleet is expected to hit roads in the summer, and it’s been confirmed that the program will begin with two shuttles.

The shuttles are outfitted with two emergency stop buttons, an SOS intercom, an emergency brake, and a hand brake in case of an emergency. Each has air conditioning and central heating, as well as glass windows and accessibility by ramp.

NAVYA is based in France, and they manufacture Beep’s AUTONOM shuttle. Specialists from the NAVYA assembly plant in Michigan were also involved with instruction. The corporation named Beep their exclusive dealer for the state of Florida for autonomous vehicle research and development.

NAVYA shuttles are in effect all over the world from the University of Salford in Manchester, UK, to Christchurch International Airport in New Zealand. Lake Nona will be the third region to see autonomous vehicles deployed, joining Ann Arbor, Mich., and Las Vegas.

NAVYA reported that they have a perfect safety record according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Automated Driving Systems Voluntary Safety Self-Assessment Disclosure Index. That’s just a very complicated way of saying that the corporation complied with NHTSA encouragement to release a safety assessment that follows a 12-point guideline. NAVYA’s is posted on their website.

“The vehicle itself has a great safety record,” Chief McCluan said. “However, we are prepared to deal with whatever issues we may encounter.”

The first responders trained that afternoon to deal with emergencies such as an overturned vehicle, a fire, a stalled shuttle, or a medical emergency on a shuttle in motion. Despite what could go wrong, there was still plenty of optimism.

“We’ve now got autonomous vehicles in the Lake Nona area,” Chief Wales said. “It’s groundbreaking stuff – it’s amazing. We’re really happy to see that kind of growth.”