National Park Service

U.S. Department of the Interior

Park Planning, Facilities and Lands Directorate

Park Facility M an agement Divis ion

Washington, D.C.

June 2022

NPS Emerging Mobility: Summary Evaluation of LowSpeed Automated Shuttle Pilots at NPS Sites
June 2022 | 2

CONTEXT

Through its Emerging Mobility Program, the NPS uses pilots as opportunities to test technologies and 

evaluate operations, infrastructure requirements, costs, and benefits, including visitor satisfaction, increased 

access, and reducing environmental impact. The NPS implemented electric automated shuttle pilots at

Yellowstone National Park and Wright Brothers National Memorial in 2021. These were the first-ever such 

pilots at a recreational public lands site in the country and allowed the NPS to test the suitability of emerging 

automated vehicle technologies in public lands. The NPS is evaluating both pilots to assess how the 

automated technologies performed in park settings and to identify potential future use cases for emerging 

technologies across the National Park System.

AUTOMATED SHUTTLES In early 2020, the NPS applied for and received a grant of $600,000 from the U.S. Department of 

Transportation (DOT) Technology and Innovation Deployment Program to support two automated shuttle 

pilots, in coordination with the Office of Federal Lands Highway within DOT. 

“The Electric Driverless Demonstration in Yellowstone” (TEDDY) pilot took place at the Canyon Village area of 

Yellowstone National Park, and the “Connected Autonomous Shuttle Supporting Innovation” (CASSI) pilot 

took place at Wright Brothers National Memorial. 

Figure 1: Shuttle Pilots at Yellowstone National Park (left) and Wright BrothersNational Memorial (right)

Source: U.S. DOT Volpe Center and NPS

The following table contains detailed information on the two pilots.

Table 1: Details of the Two 2021 NPS Automated Shuttle Pilots

Category Yellowstone (TEDDY) Wright Brothers (CASSI)

Operator Beep EasyMile/Transdev

Vehicle Local Motors Olli EasyMile EZ10

Number of Shuttles Two One

Operating Days of Week Seven days, Monday–Sunday Five days, Monday–Friday 

Service Day 7:00 am –9:00 pm (with two breaks) 10:00 am –4:30 pm (with one break)

Planned Hours per Day 9 hours 5.5 hours

Number of Unique Routes Two Routes One Route

Route Miles 1.5 miles / 1.6 miles 1.5 miles

Number of Stops Three / Four Two

Source: NPS and U.S. DOT Volpe Center
June 2022 | 3

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK 

In January 2020, the NPS issued a Sources Sought (similar to a request for information, or RFI) targeted to 

industry to collect information to inform a possible NPS automated shuttle pilot. Informed by promising 

responses to the Sources Sought, the NPS issued a request for quotes (RFQ) in June 2020 to select a vendor 

for the summer 2021 TEDDY pilot at Yellowstone National Park. Beep, Inc., was selected in September 2020 

as the vendor for the TEDDY pilot. 

The TEDDY pilot ranfrom June to August 2021 with two electric automated shuttles, bringing visitors to and 

from the lodges and campground in Yellowstone’s Canyon Village along two routes. 

Figure 2: Map of TEDDY Route – Campground (top) and Lodges (bottom)

Source: NPS and U.S. DOT Volpe Center
June 2022 | 4

WRIGHT BROTHERS NATIONAL MEMORIAL 

In March 2020, the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) announced it was accepting 

applications from North Carolina communities for deployment proposals for CASSI, its electric automated 

shuttle project. In coordination with Park, Regional, and WASO staff, the NPS submitted an application to 

NCDOT for a potential CASSI demonstration at Wright Brothers National Memorial in May 2020. Due to the 

COVID-19 public health emergency, discussions about a possible CASSI demonstration were delayed; 

however, in October 2020, the NPS and NCDOT resumed discussions about a deployment for spring 2021. 

Partners included the NPS, NCDOT, EasyMile (shuttle provider), and Transdev (operator).

The CASSI pilot ran from April to July 2021 with a single automated shuttle, bringing visitors from the main 

parking lot near the Visitor Center onto Wright Brothers Memorial Loop, and to the Wright Brothers 

Monument.

Figure 3: Map of CASSI Route

Source: NPS and U.S. DOT Volpe Center

 
June 2022 | 5

RESULTS 

The TEDDY shuttles at Yellowstone National Park had 

more than 2,500 trips and 10,000 riders. The CASSI 

shuttle at Wright Brothers National Memorial had more 

than 800 trips and 3,300 riders.

Table 2: Comparison of TEDDY and CASSI Automated Shuttle Pilot Operations

Category Yellowstone (TEDDY) Wright Brothers (CASSI)

Number of Days in Operation 74 54

Number of Trips 2,544 809

Number of Passengers 10,057 3,380

Average Passengers per Trip 4.0 4.2

Average Passengers per Vehicle per Operating Day 68.0 62.6

Average Trips per Vehicle per Operating Day 17.2 15.0

Source: Transdev, Beep, and U.S. DOT Volpe Center

Automated shuttle technologies are still in an early stage of development and are not ready to provide useful 

public transportation service in complex environments. Despite the fact that the routes chosen for these 

initial pilots were relatively short and simple compared to the range of possible routes that might be 

desirable in a National Park setting, TEDDY and CASSI both faced many operational challenges. For instance, 

the shuttles had many disengagements and service suspensions stemming from relatively common weather 

events (e.g., rain), vegetation growth near routes, encounters with normal vehicle and pedestrian traffic, 

software updates, and other causes.

Given the early stage of technology development, most visitors who sought to ride the shuttles did so in 

order to experience the technology rather than for the transportation service. The majority of survey 

respondents in both pilots noted that they took shuttle rides primarily for a fun experience rather than to get 

to a specific destination. The graphs below show the breakdown of results for the two pilots.

Figure 4: Comparison of Survey Responses on the Purpose of Rides

Source: NCDOT, Montana State University, and U.S. DOT Volpe Center

Fun 

Experience, 

83.2%

Specific 

Destination, 

2.0%

Both, 13.3% Other, 1.5%

Survey Responses for TEDDY Pilot

Fun 

Experience, 

61.6%

Specific 

Destination, 

6.5%

Both, 31.8%

Survey Responses for CASSI Pilot

Over 90% of survey respondents for both pilots 

somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement: 

“I had a good experience using the shuttle.”
June 2022 | 6

The above results are part of an evaluation effort conducted by the U.S. DOT Volpe Center. In addition to 

analyzing the vehicle data and survey results, the evaluation report also documents lessons learned related 

to infrastructure requirements, contracting, communications, planning, visitor experience and management, 

technology, evaluation and surveys, and accessibility in order to inform any future automated vehicle or 

other emerging mobility pilots. The NPS published the full evaluation report of both pilots in June 2022.

POTENTIAL FUTURE DIRECTIONS Results of the automated shuttle demonstrations will be used to inform future NPS work and to provide 

additional use cases for the automated shuttle industry. The TEDDY and CASSI pilots were useful in 

understanding how currently available automated shuttle technologies (i.e., low-speed automated shuttles 

that can carry six to eight passengers along a fixed route) operate in a National Park setting. While some 

aspects worked well, there were also many challenges to operating service. 

To further advance knowledge and understanding of automated vehicles capabilities in National Parks, any 

future automated vehicle testing will not seek to replicate the TEDDY and CASSI pilots, but instead consider 

distinctly different use cases, vehicle formats, or technologies. For instance, beyond the fixed route service 

with novel-design low-speed automated shuttles already tested, many companies are developing ondemand, point-to-point services, which may provide useful test cases for NPS sites. Similarly, companies have 

developed automated driving systems for light-duty passenger vehicles, cutaway buses, and full-size transit 

buses, which could potentially be tested at NPS sites in the next two to five years. Similarly, outside of transitrelated service, there may be opportunities to test automated vehicles for other applications, such as 

personal individual transportation, ridehailing service, interpretive services, or goods delivery. Automated 

vehicle pilot tests will remain useful to the NPS to determine applicability of various vehicle technologies in a 

park setting, and the NPS may consider more permanent installations in the future when technology 

requirements, needs, and park suitability align. 

The NPS is also exploring other types of emerging mobility pilot projects with dozens of parks across the 

country. These future pilots may involve:

• Using technology to display real-time parking or transit information in parks, online, or through 

mobile apps. 

• Implementing electric vehicle charging stations in partnership with gateway communities.

• Partnering with gateway communities and transportation providers to establish bike share or scooter 

share opportunities.

• Establishing designated pick-up/drop-off zones for ridehailing. 

Learn more about the NPS Emerging Mobility program by visiting the webpage.