Study raises concerns for local multimillion-dollar autonomous vehicle project

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax has found more serious concerns with a local, multi-million-dollar autonomous vehicles project. The same company behind the Jacksonville Transportation Authority’s $66 million Bay Street Innovation Corridor had a similar pilot project in Charlotte.

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UNC Charlotte and the North Carolina Department of Transportation studied how the autonomous shuttles worked and were used. The major findings don’t bode well for Jacksonville’s full-scale project with the same company, Orlando-based Beep.

The study (see attached) found the tech needs to advance further if it is going to meet the needs and expectations of the community. It also found that the technology is not ready to be used as a conventional transit, as JTA intends, for a variety of reasons, like the fact it’s not fully autonomous and it still requires an attendant on board.

The study also found most people chose not to use the vehicle for a variety of reasons and its slow speed and delays made it less reliable than conventional transportation.

Action News Jax reached out to all the local project’s stakeholders asking whether this is still a good use of tax dollars. The city is in for more than $35 million, FDOT has committed $13 million and the US DOT has committed $12.5 million. None of them responded by the deadline.

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JTA did send this statement:

Forward-thinking communities across the country are piloting autonomous vehicles. As these are emerging transit technologies, it is important to test and collect feedback which is why dozens of pilot programs are underway across the U.S.

We applaud the University of North Carolina for testing and evaluating this technology and sharing the results of its pilot program with the public. We are aware of these lessons learned from this program and they are being incorporated to develop our program to meet the needs of riders in Jacksonville.

Action News Jax also reached out to vocal critics of the project. City Councilman Rory Diamond said, “This report is yet more evidence that we need to pull the plug on the U2C. Let’s cut our losses.”

The U2C, or Ultimate Urban Corridor, is the name of the second phase of the autonomous vehicles project that currently has no plan and no company contracted to put one together. The price tag isn’t set yet but is expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

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