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

[Charles Hunter]

^
And yet, Waymo and Cruise are given the regulatory "go ahead" to expand their services in San Francisco
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/waymo-cruise-faq-18285004.php

This means both companies can now charge for driverless rides without a safety driver present 24 hours a day. The resolutions passed by the commission don’t include any caps on mileage or fleet sizes, and both companies have full discretion over how they plan to scale service.

Prior to Thursday’s decision, Cruise publicly disclosed that it operated about 300 driverless taxis at night and 100 during the day. Waymo disclosed its fleet numbered about 250 robotaxis, with about 100 of them in service at any given time of day.

Cruise and Waymo have not specified how they plan to expand their services — nor are they required to under state regulations. Both companies, though, said this week that they plan to do so incrementally.

Waymo’s CPUC resolution notes that the company is allowed to operate robotaxis on roadways at speeds of up to 65 mph.

[jaxoNOLE]

But won't we owe the federal grant money back if the BSIC fails? How does exacerbating our grant money ball and chain help?

It seems fairly clear that repaying $90 million or whatever it is and getting something functional would be preferable to the pods failing, having to repay $90 + $12 million, and having nothing functional.

JaxoNOLE, read back a few posts on this thread for a discussion on the Federal "payback" re: the Skyway.  I seriously doubt JTA owes more than $24 million to the Feds based on the Federal letters to JTA posted by Marcus.  Further, based on one letter, they may owe as little as zero based on the fair market value of a system that can't be supported by the manufacturer anymore.  Based on the Federal letters posted, JTA appears to have grossly misled leadership and the public with regard to this issue and it warrant further investigation.

My point is really, even if their arguments about the payback were completely true and accurate (which to your point seems highly unlikely), their selected path forward still makes no sense from a transit perspective. Whatever is motivating the tunnel-vision focus on AVs, it isn't the desire to deliver a context-appropriate transit solution for downtown.

[thelakelander]

^Bingo!

[Jax_Developer]

^It just gets sillier and sillier the more one thinks about it. Why would anyone ride this slow moving minivan on a fixed elevated guideway as a serious form of mass transit?

LOL, at this point I'm impressed with the power JTA has.. they have kept all other progress at bay for some vans running on fixed guideways. As someone else mentioned, aka a worse & limited Uber lol...

[thelakelander]

^Yes, that is impressive and sad, that this has lasted this long. I fully expect the U2C full implementation timeline to keep extending before the masses take the U2C out back and finally put it to sleep.

[marcuscnelson]

I'm getting word that the SWAN shuttle in Orlando has been involved in a crash with a Lymmo bus.

[thelakelander]

Already?!

[marcuscnelson]

Afraid so.

https://www.clickorlando.com/traffic/2023/08/22/no-injuries-in-orlando-swan-shuttle-lymmo-bus-crash-police-say/

[Charles Hunter]

It looks like JTA is holding a webinar tomorrow - Thursday, August 24 - about Autonomous Vehicles. This is Episode 1 - Autonomous Mobility Disruptors. The JTA page doesn't hint at how many there will be. The webinar will feature transportation leaders including JTA CEO Nathaniel P. Ford Sr., RTC of Southern Nevada CEO M.J. Maynard, Contra Costa Transportation Authority Executive Director Tim Haile, and Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County Chief Innovation Officer Kimberly Williams.
https://go.jtafla.com/autonomousmobility

A note as a proofreader, the countdown timer on that webpage is wrong. At 1:15 PM on 8/23, it says the webinar is in "1 Day, 10 hours, 45 minutes" which, by my calculation makes it around midnight between Thursday and Friday.

[Charles Hunter]

An article about the lobbying behind that California approval for Waymo and Cruise AV Taxi expansion in San Francisco - and the continuing problem with the AVs recognizing and responding appropriately to Emergency Services.
https://www.levernews.com/the-lobbying-surge-behind-san-franciscos-robo-taxi-mayhem/

[Charles Hunter]

JTA and FSCJ to pilot U2C at FSCJ Downtown Campus

The autonomous, electric vehicle service, to be deployed this fall, will provide a new mobility service for students, faculty and visitors on the FSCJ Downtown Jacksonville campus.  It will connect the Advanced Technology Center, President’s office, and Cafeteria over a one-mile route to enhance movement between these segmented areas of campus.

The project is one of many planned “Agile” programs pioneered by the JTA team to prepare the Jacksonville community for the future of transportation through the Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) program. These important projects will validate the wide variety of applications for autonomous vehicles throughout the community ahead of the launch of phase one of the U2C, the Bay Street Innovation Corridor in 2025.  Expanding the testing of autonomous vehicles in FSCJ’s Downtown Campus will also continue to ready the community for how autonomous technology will enhance the quality of life for all who learn, live, and work in the City of Jacksonville.

As part of the autonomous vehicle program, FSCJ’s Downtown Campus, faculty, staff and students will experience autonomous vehicles operating on campus first-hand. Feedback and learnings from the program will build upon the existing knowledge base of this emerging technology as it continues to develop the FSCJ curriculum, skillset and workforce to support these transformative transportation solutions.

https://www.jtafla.com/media-center/press-releases/jacksonville-transportation-authority-jta-and-florida-state-college-at-jacksonville-to-advance-autonomous-vehicle-innovation-with-new-service-on-fscj-downtown-campus/

[marcuscnelson]

Forwarding what I said in the other thread:

Interesting for this news to drop now.

What confuses me is that I thought the whole idea of the Agile projects was supposed to be a follow-on program to the U2C, taking the completed project downtown and applying its lessons to create dozens of new AV networks on campuses across the region. This is the first time I've heard of it proposed as part of the R&D (sorry, "Test & Learn") for the U2C itself.

More importantly, I don't really see how this would address any of the known challenges with the U2C. FSCJ isn't the size of a football stadium, it doesn't sound like this strays far away from the campus if at all, hasn't navigated any of the regulatory issues including the very low speed limit. What would this do that no other AV pilot has done? How would it be any better or different than the SWAN shuttle, or the runs in Gainesville, or any number of other previous AV pilot programs?

[jaxlongtimer]

6+ years and counting.... I was wondering what are the "great impacts" JTA has had on the "development of the next generation" of AV's.

...The JTA has been researching and testing autonomous vehicle technologies since 2017.  JTA’s efforts to date have greatly impacted development of next generation autonomous platforms and solutions, which will result in the City of Jacksonville being one of the first in the world to deliver on the vision of safe, convenient, autonomous, electric, shared  mobility networks to further activate and modernize the downtown area....

My nomination for the new theme song for JTA:  "Promises, Promises"  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpKAnp5Klzw

[thelakelander]

^A pilot is something that should have been done years ago and it doesn't take the millions we're blowing to do it. Running them as a first last mile option on small self contained environments like FSJC, Mayo Clinic, etc. is what they should be used for. However, they aren't substitutes for real mass transit.

[Todd_Parker]