JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Transportation Authority is showing off the self-driving vehicles it plans to roll out downtown next year.
It’s part of “Autonomous Vehicle Day.”
JTA hopes to have more than a dozen autonomous vehicles rolling through downtown in 2025.
They will be along several parts of Bay Street.
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It will be a 3-mile loop called the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, between the downtown core and the sports and entertainment district.
The corridor is expected to have 12 different stops.
JTA said it is a part of a plan to modernize that part of the city.
The agency also just broke ground earlier this week on a $65 million Autonomous Innovation Center in Lavilla.
JTA held its annual “State of the Authority” on Thursday and CEO Nat Ford spoke about his vision.
“Next year, Jacksonville will become the first city in the United States to deploy a true autonomous vehicle network for public transportation,” he said. “This is not a pilot program, folks. It will be a true public transportation service unlike anything ever developed. This project will be a tangible application for Jacksonville, and it creates a blueprint for cities in Florida as well as across the United States. The state of Florida created a climate for innovation through its laws and policies. Federal policy makers recognized that states are the incubators for innovation as well as the laboratories for change. They all embrace this vision. We are so thankful for that collaboration.”
City Council president Ron Salem said the improvement of infrastructure is contributing to the enhancement of quality of life in Jacksonville.
“JTA’s innovative approach to integrating autonomous vehicles into our transportation network is paving the way for the future,” Salem said. “The Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) program highlights, our city’s commitment to embracing cutting edge technology to improve mobility and reduce congestion.”
Back in February, News4JAX showed viewers when JTA debuted its first autonomous shuttle at FSCJ’s downtown campus. At the time, the vehicle had an operator since it was a pilot run.
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But the plan is for it to be self-driven.
Some of the features include high-definition cameras, radar, and a system to identify what is happening around the vehicle.
Those will be similar to the shuttles that are on the way to Bay Street.
Whenever those autonomous shuttles end up coming to Bay Street, they will not be able to operate in the rain or the fog because those conditions affect the sensory technology.