Autonomous vehicle

An autonomous vehicle comprising:

• a vehicle body having a cabin space formed therein, the cabin space being so formed as to inhibit each passenger of the autonomous vehicle from standing upright;
• a wheel supported by the vehicle body;
• a steering mechanism supported by the vehicle body, and configured to change a direction of travel of the autonomous vehicle;
• a driving/braking force generating device supported by the vehicle body, and configured to generate a driving force to drive the autonomous vehicle and a braking force to decelerate the autonomous vehicle;
• a plurality of seats supported by the vehicle body, and each configured to be sat on by a passenger;
• and
• an autonomous driving controller including
• a processor, and
• a non-transitory storage medium containing program instructions,
• execution of the program instructions by the processor causing the autonomous driving controller to control the steering mechanism and the driving/braking force generating device to autonomously drive the autonomous vehicle without any driver's manipulation, wherein
• the execution of the program instructions by the processor causes the autonomous driving controller to control the driving/braking force generating device to change the autonomous vehicle from a stopped state to a run state, based on
• (1) a number of passengers, and a number of ready-state-expressing passengers,
• (2) a maximum capacity, and the number of ready-state-expressing passengers, and
• (3) a scheduled number of passengers, and the number of ready-state-expressing passengers, wherein
• said number of passengers is a total number of passengers in the autonomous vehicle,
• said maximum capacity is a total number of the seats in the autonomous vehicle,
• said scheduled number of passengers is a total number of passengers who are scheduled to be in the autonomous vehicle, and
• said number of ready-state-expressing passengers is a total number of passengers who are each both
• seated on one of the plurality of seats, and
• making a sign of being ready for a change of the autonomous vehicle from the stopped state to the run state.