2 autonomous shuttle systems already running in Florida

[thelakelander]

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) would like to invest $423 million into the retrofit of the JTA Skyway into a futuristic transit service that will operate with autonomous shuttle buses. For those of you who are interested in what this system could resemble at ground level, here are two autonomous pilot programs already operating similar services in real time conditions within a short drive of Jacksonville.

Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/2-autonomous-shuttle-systems-already-running-in-florida/

[marcuscnelson]

I was doing some research and came across these vehicles by a company in China, Yutong. Their vehicles appear to be somewhat larger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edEMI3nSmEM

https://en.yutong.com/pressmedia/yutong-news/2021/2021DMQAJkVY7T.html

https://en.yutong.com/technology/autonomous-driving/

[thelakelander]

These could be too wide to operate on the Skyway structure itself but it does suggest what we already know. The vehicles that JTA are playing with will likely be obsolete by the time they actually get something done.

[bl8jaxnative]

Nothing on the market for these robo quads can operate on the Skyway.

They're rolling the dice, hoping that they can retrofit The Skyway to safely handle these things.  They probably can't, at least not for least than what it'd to build it all new.   Craziness.

[ProjectMaximus]

3 in FL. There's the one in downtown Tampa as well: http://www.gohart.org/avpilot

[thelakelander]

The Tampa example is interesting. Despite operating autonomous shuttle buses as a pilot in downtown, that city is still pursuing the retrofit and expansion of its heritage streetcar line into a modern streetcar system. That project, which is also very comparable in price to the U2C completely goes against JTA's belief that these types of systems aren't as viable in the long term as unproven technology.

[Kerry]

https://www.skytran.com/