CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Clay County is considering buying self-driving buses to help people get around.
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There are several areas the county is looking at to bring these vehicles. Two of those areas are Wells Road and College Drive.
“We have a significant population that is in need of transportation due to geography,” said Clay County Commission Chair Jim Renninger. “A significantly retired military population that’s getting older every single day. They have issues providing their own transportation.”
At the beginning of this month, Clay County officials went to Lake Nona in Orlando to speak with leaders from the autonomous vehicle company “Beep.”
Now the county is considering using autonomous vehicles to expand public transportation options.
But in an Action News Jax investigation, we uncovered how an engineer raised red flags about the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s plans to bring autonomous vehicles downtown.
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That project is called the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C.
Action News Jax pulled emails from the former city engineer who was the point person for this project. Those emails say, among other things, “The city should not allow these vehicles on any road, much less downtown, ever.”
Based on those emails, I asked commission chair Renninger if he has similar safety concerns.
“We definitely view safety as a primary concern and were aware of the current projects in the region,” said Renninger. “And we are aware of the concerns there. We are doing our due diligence right now. We are going to mitigate certainly any hazard or safety concern before we ever do anything.”
He also said once they get into the actual process, they will be looking at any manufacturers of autonomous vehicles.
So far this is in the very early stages, and the county has not spent any money on this.
These are all conversations; nothing has been set in stone.
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