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

[Ken_FSU]

Don't be so closed-minded! It's not another water taxi -- it's an autonomous ferry,  dedicated for carrying up to 3 U2C clown cars!!

/sarcasm (at least I hope so...)

CAREFUL.

DON’T GIVE NAT ANY IDEAS   

[Charles Hunter]

Can any of you attend the Public Hearing on Nov. 6th, at 10 AM, or send written comments to the NFTPO?

Go to the 2050 Path Forward (LRTP) website: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d59e12e6f4aa4442ae1fe4e5faee756d

Scroll down to reveal the menu tabs, select "Surveys" and then scroll up to reveal the Send Us Your Comments button. This will bring up a Microsoft email window.

[jax_hwy_engineer]

I mean… no.

I mean... duh. I know it's not a viable transit option, my post was tongue-in-cheek in response to the guy above me saying "Uber is flexible too "

Even if it's a joke idea, it's still a better idea than U2C.

[Captain Zissou]

Can't believe they had a topping out ceremony for a 2 story building only 5 months after a groundbreaking ceremony.  Clearly this is more about looking like they're doing something vs actually doing something.

[Ken_FSU]

Just quickly appreciating this unhinged bit from the ridiculous "topping out" ceremony for Nat's concrete box.

The U2C is scheduled to launch in June 2025 along the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, a 3-mile route on and near Bay Street Downtown. The $66.5 million Bay Street segment will include 12 stops and 14 shuttles, with plans calling for shuttles to run every seven minutes.

Seven-minute headways???

For 14 clowncars...

Circling a THREE MILE loop.



By my math, assuming 7 shuttles circling in either direction, that puts the average operating speed of the U2C at a futuristic 3.6 miles per hour.

A ride from the Four Seasons to Riverfront Plaza would be roughly the length of an episode of Seinfeld (21 minutes).

The question that I'm DYING for just one person at JTA to answer is this:

What problem does this solve?

With the follow-up question:

Where does this problem (a lack of ways of to get from the JRTC to Metro Park in over 30 minutes) rank amongst all of Jacksonville's transportation struggles?

[thelakelander]

You're making a point based around logic. Logic, at least for the end user, is going to be a bit different from what it will be at the top of the food chain. Somake sure you ask a person that's not making +$250k in annual salary or billing overseas trips and stays at lavish hotels and resorts, when traveling out-of-town for this boondoggle.

[marcuscnelson]

Just quickly appreciating this unhinged bit from the ridiculous "topping out" ceremony for Nat's concrete box.

The U2C is scheduled to launch in June 2025 along the Bay Street Innovation Corridor, a 3-mile route on and near Bay Street Downtown. The $66.5 million Bay Street segment will include 12 stops and 14 shuttles, with plans calling for shuttles to run every seven minutes.

Seven-minute headways???

For 14 clowncars...

Circling a THREE MILE loop.



By my math, assuming 7 shuttles circling in either direction, that puts the average operating speed of the U2C at a futuristic 3.6 miles per hour.

A ride from the Four Seasons to Riverfront Plaza would be roughly the length of an episode of Seinfeld (21 minutes).

That's funny, I remember them swearing up and down from reports to marketing materials that the miracle of autonomous vehicles would mean that they could run these anywhere from 3-5 minutes to as low as 1-3 minutes. Wonder what happened.

I also find it funny how everyone keeps calling this corridor a 3-mile loop, seemingly in an effort to help soften the per-mile cost. We don't call the First Coast Flyer a 116-mile loop, or the Skyway a 5-mile loop. If you actually look at the corridor end-to-end it's only about a mile and a half between Central station and the closest it gets to EverBank Stadium. But naturally, admitting that would peg the cost in the mid $40 million/mile range instead of the comparatively sweeter $20 million.

[jaxoNOLE]

To be fair, 3.6 mph is at the top end of the average walking speed, so....wait, what was I saying?

[Charles Hunter]

Did anyone attend the Bay Street Innovation Corridor Open House Wednesday evening?

[jax_hwy_engineer]

To be fair, 3.6 mph is at the top end of the average walking speed, so....wait, what was I saying?

I was gonna say, I can power-walk 3.6 mph.

[Lostwave]

The rental scooters are waaay faster than that.

[thelakelander]

15mph for the scooters.

[jaxlongtimer]

Google's Waymo company is now up to $11 billion in funding, having just added another $5.6 billion.  No doubt, JTA can match this amount of resources with unlimited support from our City leaders so that JTA can ultimately equal and then pass Waymo, Tesla and the few remaining other players, none of which have reached the finish line. 

Why doesn't the City just take the $400+ million in U2C dollars and invest them in Waymo and, if successful, have a nice return on investment for the taxpayers.  As a significant investor in Waymo, Jax can truly claim to be on the leading edge of AV and become one of its model cities for early implementation.  This would be far better than JTA's "wandering in the desert" plan for U2C and, likely, yield better results and publicity for the City with far less costs and controversy.

Interesting note at the end that 2/3 of people would not set foot in an AV!  On top of everything else, who does JTA plan to get to ride their system?

Waymo has closed a $5.6 billion funding round to expand its robotaxi service in and beyond Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, where it operates today.

The autonomous vehicle venture is owned by Google parent Alphabet, which led the series C investment in Waymo, alongside earlier backers including Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Fidelity, Perry Creek, Silver Lake, Tiger Global and T. Rowe Price.

In a statement to CNBC, Waymo co-CEOs Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov said the funding would go toward expansion and advancing the Waymo Driver for business applications.

“With this latest investment, we will continue to welcome more riders into our Waymo One ride-hailing service in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Los Angeles, and in Austin and Atlanta through our expanded partnership with Uber,” they wrote.

The series C funding brings Waymo’s total capital raised to more than $11 billion after it raised $3.2 billion and $2.5 billion in two earlier rounds. Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat announced in July that the parent company would commit to a multiyear investment of up to $5 billion in Waymo.

While many companies are testing autonomous vehicles, or AVs, on public roads in the U.S., including well-funded upstarts such as Wayve, Waymo is the only one to operate a commercial robotaxi service in several major metro areas....

....Waymo now conducts more than 100,000 weekly trips for passengers in Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco, who can hail their robotaxis via the Waymo One app. More recently, Waymo partnered with Uber to launch its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas — home of would-be rival Tesla’s headquarters.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made promises about self-driving cars for more than a decade. This week, he said Tesla would offer a driverless ride-hailing service in Texas and California next year, once the company upgrades the partially automated systems in its existing vehicles, which still require a human driver today.

GM-owned Cruise had been Waymo’s closest competitor in the U.S. until it paused operations following an October 2023 incident in San Francisco in which a pedestrian was dragged 20 feet by a Cruise AV, after she was first struck by a human driver in another car. Cruise is working to reinstate its service and also plans to partner with Uber.

Self-driving vehicle makers in the U.S. must still prove their technology is safer to use than taxis and trucks with human drivers. As CNBC previously reported, nearly two-thirds of U.S. respondents to a Pew Research Center survey said they would not want to ride in a driverless passenger vehicle if they had the opportunity....

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/25/alphabets-self-driving-unit-waymo-closes-5point6-billion-funding-round.html

[Charles Hunter]

JTA gives Nate Ford the ability to negotiate with three AV-tech suppliers.
From the Jacksonville Business Journal

The JTA Board of Directors authorized JTA CEO Nat Ford to negotiate and execute contracts with a shortlist of three companies during a board meeting Monday. ADASTEC Corp, Beep Inc. and May Mobility are three companies from JTA is seeking to procure highly automated transit vehicle solutions from.
...
A dollar amount for the contracts have not been determined yet, and will be set based on future available funding from the JTA. The contracts have a term of five years with no options to renew.
...
ADASTEC is a developer of software for autonomous vehicles with offices in Michigan, The Netherlands and Turkey. ADASTEC’s “automated driving software platform enables (original equipment manufacturers) to develop modern, automated, shared and connected commercial vehicles,” according to their website.

May Mobility is a Michigan-based AV technology developer, which produces a Multi-Policy Decision Making system, a real-time, reinforcement-learning AI algorithm that learns while driving and generates training examples relevant to an AV’s current environment.

Beep Inc., an Orlando-based company, will provide the services and software to deploy, manage and operate the AVs in Jacksonville.

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2024/11/14/jta-ceo-authorized-to-negotiate-contracts-with-3-a.html?ana=e_JA_me&j=37474889&senddate=2024-11-14&empos=p5

Given the new dynamic starting in January in DC, maybe JTA should partner with Tesla. 

Although, I don't know how long the Trump Ego will put up with the Musk Ego before saying "You're Fired!"

[jaxlongtimer]

^ Just adding Ford's statement in this article for posters to parse if they wish...  .  To me, he admits we are basically a pay-to-be industry guinea pig courtesy of Duval taxpayers.

“The JTA is proud to lead, and once again position the State of Florida, in pioneering procurement opportunities for this transformative technology, poised to redefine mobility and deliver lasting benefits to our communities,” said JTA CEO Ford in a release. “This bold initiative will not only address local needs, but also set a new standard for innovation, creating solutions that empower transit providers across the nation to elevate their services and expand their impact.”