Is U2C serious? Help me make it make sense....

[Charles Hunter]

JTA is holding a "Florida Automated Vehicles Summit" at the Omni Amelia Island next month (December 14-16).
https://favsummit.com/

Our Mission

The Florida Automated Vehicles (FAV) Summit assembles industry leaders from around the world to address technologies, operations, and policy issues. Our mission is to gain insight into what Florida is doing to create the ideal climate for the implementation and deployment of autonomous and connected vehicle technologies.

Topics will include automated, connected, electric, and shared (ACES) mobility, operations, law, infrastructure, functional design, cyber security, ethics, aftermarket products, enabling technologies, and public policy.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Interesting that the only speaker listed is from Ford which just closed down its AV partnership.  LOL.

Jennifer Brace is a Trends and Futuring Manager at Ford where she leads discussions on long-term thinking, planning, and strategic development. By researching demographic shifts, identifying market outliers, and developing data-driven scenarios for the future, she challenges her colleagues to think through a broad range of possible narratives before settling on a plan of action. Throughout her 19-year career with Ford, she has launched multiple versions of SYNC in vehicle technology, lead user experience research projects on autonomous vehicles, and drove innovation in mobility from Greenfield Labs in Palo Alto, California. Jennifer currently resides in Plymouth, Michigan, and holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MS in Engineering Management from the University of Michigan.

[tufsu1]

to be fair, it is a statewide summit that has been held for over 5 years - JTA is just the host sponsor this year

[marcuscnelson]

Just in case anyone missed the mention earlier, JTA is holding two "Business Stakeholder Engagement" meetings at TIAA Bank Field's West Club tomorrow from 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm.

https://6847720.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6847720/U2C%2022025%20Bay%20Street%20Corridor%20Innovation%20Business%20Meeting%20Postcard.pdf

Could be helpful for those who can attend to see where the project stands at this point. There's also an overall website for the Bay Street Innovation Corridor:

https://go.jtafla.com/bsic

[thelakelander]

I was invited to attend them. I may try to make one of them tomorrow.

[jaxlongtimer]

Just in case anyone missed the mention earlier, JTA is holding two "Business Stakeholder Engagement" meetings at TIAA Bank Field's West Club tomorrow from 10am-12pm and 5pm-7pm.

https://6847720.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/6847720/U2C%2022025%20Bay%20Street%20Corridor%20Innovation%20Business%20Meeting%20Postcard.pdf

Could be helpful for those who can attend to see where the project stands at this point. There's also an overall website for the Bay Street Innovation Corridor:

https://go.jtafla.com/bsic

Saw an ad in the Times Union for this and noted they also were asking for public input.  On the record, Ennis should ask them what the budget and timeline are realistically (haha) and how they plan to successfully complete the project with nonexistent technology. 

Lastly, ask them to go on the record as to how many riders it can realistically handle, what the cost per rider will be, and what demand studies they have to show that people will use this vs. Uber, Lyft or their personal "AV's".

[thelakelander]

I will try to make the evening meeting, after a full day's work.

[tufsu1]

I will try to make the evening meeting, after a full day's work.

the meetings today are primarily for businesses. There is a public meeting next Thursday evening at JRTC

[thelakelander]

Yes, which is why I'd rather attend tonight's. Really interested in the impact (positive or negative) to local downtown businesses along the corridor.

[marcuscnelson]

So how'd it go?

[thelakelander]

The Bay Street Innovation Corridor a $51.1 million project that is not really related to the Skyway conversion (that's phase 2). JTA hopes to complete the 3.1 mile long Bay Street Innovation Corridor in mid 2025. It will run along Bay from Pearl Street to TIAA Bank Field. The project includes 15 NAVYA AUTONOM vehicles, carrying 11 seated passengers and 4 standing. The vehicles will have a maximum operating speed of 16mph, although we don't know at this point if they'll be allowed to go that fast. The system will operate in mixed traffic and there are no plans to change the configuration of the existing streets. Operating at Level 3, each vehicle will have a human attendant.

Much of the money will be spent on building the operations center at Jefferson and West Bay Street. The proposed building is much larger than I originally anticipated. That was probably the one thing I didn't fully pay attention to prior to the meeting. The route and general system itself is nothing that we didn't already know. It's basically running a few AVs in mixed traffic, on regular streets, sort of like the pilot system in Lake Nona (Orlando). There were no detailed plans or typicals. Just a big aerial roll plot with a line, showing the proposed route. A public meeting is planned next week at the JRTC.

[fsu813]

....carrying 11 seated passengers and 4 standing. The vehicles will have a maximum operating speed of 16mph, although we don't know at this point if they'll be allowed to go that fast. The system will operate in mixed traffic and there are no plans to change the configuration of the existing streets. Operating at Level 3, each vehicle will have a human attendant.

So the difference between this and a typical shuttle that JTA uses now, would be (a) it goes slower and (b) the JTA employee inside the vehicle doesn't actually drive it, they'll just watch it drive itself.

Brilliant.

I assume the point of this is to advance the technology so that eventually no human JTA employee is necessary to be inside, the shuttles can eventually become larger, faster, safer, etc. But if that's the case, why is JTA trail blazing this tech, and not IBM, Telsa or the Chinese government?

[thelakelander]

I can't answer the question of why does Jax and JTA have to go this route but that's the goal. Unfortunately, like all of us here already know, the technology isn't there yet and there's no promise that it will ever be anytime soon. For me, there was not much to say, as this has become a plan to run a few AV cars in mixed traffic with human attendants. Like Lake Nona, Gainesville and other communities, doing that can be done. Until the technology advances and vehicles become larger and faster, it will seem more experimental than anything else.

[jcjohnpaint]

I think the 16 mph in traffic sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

[thelakelander]

^Which is why they'll need attendants on board, as its only a matter of time before human drivers stuck behind them will get fed up. However, I think they will be lucky to go that fast by 2025.

Computers are really dumb. They lack the common sense of humans. Billions have been spent on testing internationally and we're still not close to resolving many of those issues. That's something that's beyond local control.

I do hope at some point, JTA will just upgrade the rolling stock on the Skyway. Those little old and raggedy trains need to be put out of their misery. I ride them three or four days a week and have had to deal with the experience of them breaking down a few times.