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Planes, trains and driverless automobiles — it’s a future not far off for Calgary.

A pilot project to be presented to the city’s transportation committee Wednesday would, if approved, begin testing a low-speed autonomous shuttle service in the city in 2018.

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The compact, driverless shuttle with the capacity to hold up to 10 people would travel just under 20 km/hr and carry guests to and from the Calgary Zoo LRT station and Telus Spark.

The pilot project is one of a few items highlighted in a recent city report on the Future of Transportation in Calgary, which investigates the effects impending technologies could have on transportation networks in the city.

Autonomy, electrification, and connectivity and shared mobility are three major technological trends identified in the report, as well as “high-impact technologies” such as fully autonomous vehicles.

Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said the driverless shuttle pilot project is an exciting one, and could be the start of a future free of feeder buses. Carra said automated vehicles could eventually link chunks of space such as the one-kilometre expanse of parking dividing the zoo and the science centre.