Driverless pods carrying people along the Rail Trail between downtown Kelowna and the airport. Solar panels on the roofs of 45,000 Kelowna buildings. Wildfire surveillance cameras powered by AI that keep an eye on forests around the city. These are some of the ideas explored through a $2 million, nine-year taxpayer-funded research partnership undertaken between the City of Kelowna and UBC Okanagan. “The alliance aims to advance city priorities through applied research and innovation and is supported by dedicated staff from both organizations,” reads a report on the partnership going Monday to city council. “It operates as a cross-disciplinary platform that fosters collaboration, knowledge exchange, and engagement with external partners to broaden impact,” the report states. Five research projects have been commissioned since 2021, when the partnership was created, and four more will be undertaken in the next four years. One of the study projects is a $305,000 examination of the feasibility of developing an ‘autonomous transit system’ that would run along the Rail Trail corridor from downtown Kelowna out to UBC Okanagan and the airport. Though the report doesn’t actually explain what such a system is, information easily available on the internet says an ATS is a public transportation system that uses driverless vehicles, such as shuttles, buses, or pods, guided by AI, sensors, and cameras, to transport passengers. The systems are electric-powered, and promoters say the little vehicles would be cheaper than buses to operate because drivers aren’t required. Such transit systems are being tested in a few places, such as Minnesota and France. Transdev, a French firm that builds and operates transit systems, says its “I-Crystal electric autonomous shuttle is designed for the shared mobility of the future”. Each vehicle carries less than 20 people and has a maximum speed of 50 km/h. A one-mile long Transdev