An article in today's Business Journal highlights FDOT's preparations for the advent of flying autonomous vehicles.
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FDOT pursues 'highway in the sky' to combat growing interstate congestion
As Florida's interstates continue to face growing congestion and delayed commutes, Gov. Ron DeSantis is pushing transportation leaders to begin work on an aerial highway that could offer another alternative to move around the state.
The Florida Department of Transportation will build two Advanced Air Mobility vertiports at its SunTrax testing facility in Auburndale. The facility was originally created to test autonomous vehicles. This will be the first AAM aerial test bed and dedicated airspace in the U.S. The goal is to eventually expand to a statewide network of interconnected commercial vertiports.
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As the vehicles undergo certification with the Federal Aviation Administration, FDOT wants to have the infrastructure in place to usher in the new era of transit. The aerial network mirrors surface roadways and the highway system.
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[Will] Watts [an FDOT Assistant Secretary] said they anticipate some early adopters receiving certification by the end of 2026. He said Florida wants to be ready to safely begin accommodating those new vehicles.
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FDOT has released its aerial network plan, which includes two phases of development across the state. The plan includes the testing, validation and scale of air-taxi, cargo and emergency management use cases. Each phase incorporates the airports in and around the city centers brought into the network.
https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2025/10/29/fdot-interstate-congestion-aerial-highway.html?ana=e_JA_me&j=42256342&senddate=2025-10-30&empos=p1
Jacksonville is in Phase 2A (Daytona Beach to Jacksonville, includes St. Augustine) Phase 2D (Jacksonville to Tallahassee - Lake City is in Phase 2C)
The article does not say how much FDOT is investing in this effort.
The article says,
"Each phase incorporates the airports in and around the city centers brought into the network."First, it is interesting they only use existing airports - why not build 'vertipads' near the city center? And, given that limitation, where would Jacksonville's vertipad be? Driving distance from downtown (City Hall) to the four airports
Cecil 20
JAX 15
Herlong 11.5
Craig 9.3
Depending on how much land is needed, it seems a site could be found closer to the "city center." On the other hand, JAX (and maybe Cecil and Craig?) already has rental-car and ride-sharing (Uber/Lyft) infrastructure.
SunTrax already exists; apparently, the air facilities are being added.
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SunTrax is a large-scale, innovative facility developed by Florida's Turnpike Enterprise (part of the Florida Department of Transportation), dedicated to the research, development, and testing of emerging transportation technologies in safe and controlled environments.
https://suntraxfl.com/
Toll-collection technology was one of the first (and continuing) test beds for SunTrax.
Like the origins of aviation, I see lots of fatalities incurred before this technology gets to the safety levels the public expects nowadays.
The picture shows what amounts to a helicopter and those are in far more accidents than airplanes after all these years of flying, though maybe with all those propellers they might be a bit more reliable.
A big issue will be air traffic control which, currently, can hardly keep up with existing air traffic.
And you thought the stretch of 95 around the World Golf Village was dangerous on the ground.
I agree with both of you. People, and AVs, have enough trouble driving safely in 2D, operating in 3D is asking for crashes.