JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A German autonomous vehicle company working with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority says it has reached a key milestone that could move driverless transit closer to reality in Northeast Florida.<\/p>\n
HOLON announced it is now officially recognized in the United States as a transit vehicle manufacturer \u2014 a designation the company says allows it to pursue partnerships with public transportation systems nationwide.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n Jacksonville could be among the first cities to see the technology on the road.<\/p>\n Some riders say they are still hesitant.<\/p>\n \u201cI just don\u2019t trust technology that much with my life,\u201d said Taleah, who has used JTA buses in the past but says she prefers vehicles with human drivers. She didn\u2019t share her last name.<\/p>\n HOLON and the Jacksonville Transportation Authority unveiled a prototype of a fully autonomous shuttle in November. The electric vehicles are designed to operate without a driver and could eventually run on routes in downtown Jacksonville.<\/p>\n HOLON says it\u2019s a new federal designation as a transit vehicle manufacturer marks a significant step toward bringing the technology to U.S. transit agencies.<\/p>\n In a statement to Action News Jax, JTA said the milestone shows progress in the partnership.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Jacksonville Transportation Authority congratulates HOLON on achieving Transit Vehicle Manufacturer status from the U.S. Department of Transportation. This milestone reflects HOLON\u2019s rapid progress and the strength of our partnership as we work to bring cutting-edge autonomous vehicle technology to Jacksonville. It also moves us closer to deploying the next-generation NAVI shuttle as part of the JTA\u2019s Ultimate Urban Circulator program and advancing Jacksonville\u2019s leadership in autonomous mobility,\u201d the agency said.<\/p>\n Action News Jax previously reported that JTA has preordered 100 of the electric autonomous vehicles. Each is estimated to cost about $409,000.<\/p>\n The vehicles are intended to replace JTA\u2019s current semi-autonomous shuttles \u2014 modified Ford Transit vans that still require a driver when routes become too complex for the technology.<\/p>\n HOLON is also seeking a federal waiver that would allow its shuttle to operate without traditional equipment such as steering controls or driver seats. That request is still pending with federal regulators.<\/p>\n For some riders, the concept remains a tough sell.<\/p>\n Taleah says she prefers more familiar transportation options.<\/p>\n \u201cBuses, Ubers, Lyfts \u2014 but just relying on technology alone for the road? No,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Still, other riders say the idea has potential.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, it\u2019s cool. It gets you from point A to point B,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A German autonomous vehicle company working with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority says it has reached…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[344,347,88091,28,348,18517,116,351,118,117,17707,349,350,346,345],"class_list":["post-187800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-cbs47","tag-driverless-transit","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-holon","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville-transportation-authority","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=187800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=187800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=187800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=187800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}