A self-driving shuttle is taking passengers around downtown Youngstown. 

The city-owned electric vehicles run down Federal Street from the Fifth Avenue block to the South Avenue block in a continuous loop through the day. 

It's an autonomous vehicle that steers, accelerates and brakes itself and has a person in the driver's street as a supervisor per state law. 

“Generally speaking it operates on its own,” Chuck Shasho, Youngstown’s Deputy Director of Public Works said. “It negotiates turns and so forth. The driver takes over if they were to come across a car accident, construction or vehicle in the road.”

Passengers can wait at any stop with the Youngstown Smart 2 Network sign for the shuttle. Once the orange and blue van approaches passengers can hop on for free. You can also track its location by scanning the QR code in the signs and downloading the WRTA app.

The city was required to get the shuttle in order to get a $10 million grant used for revitalizing downtown. 

“The first phase was fifth avenue, the second phase was the large construction project downtown and this third and final phase was the autonomous shuttle,” Shasho said. 

The city covered 20% percent of the cost to buy the shuttle for an amount of nearly $70,000. They also covered 20% of the operating costs for the next four months for an amount of nearly $46,000.

After June, the city and WRTA are in negotiations to see if the bussing company will take over the shuttle.

“The city of Youngstown isn't really set up to do transit, we have a perfectly good partner in WRTA,” Shasho said “We’ll find some use for it obviously.”

The shuttle runs everyday except Sunday until 6p.m. The city is considering extending those hours when the weather gets nicer to promote nightlife downtown.

A second self-driving shuttle will also be coming to the city. The WRTA is launching its shuttle in the next few weeks. Their route will mostly be along Fifth Avenue with stops near Stambaugh Stadium, Mercy Health’s St. Elizabeth's Hospital and Federal Station. The full route can be found here.