{"id":34874,"date":"2025-11-05T21:18:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/34874\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T21:18:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T21:18:11","slug":"councilman-says-jta-autonomous-vehicle-infrastructure-needs-to-be-in-place-before-downtown-development-is-complete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/34874\/","title":{"rendered":"Councilman says JTA autonomous vehicle infrastructure needs to be in place before downtown development is complete"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville councilman said that JTA\u2019s autonomous vehicle infrastructure needs to be in place before downtown development is complete. <\/p>\n

RELATED: JTA opens Autonomous Innovation Center downtown with 14 Holon vehicles already approved for purchase<\/a><\/p>\n

The Duval DOGE committee spent more than an hour on Tuesday grilling JTA officials about the Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Initiative (NAVI) program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a $400 million program that has no tested technology, no real budget, no timeline,\u201d Councilmember Rory Diamond said. \u201cWe\u2019re a city of a million people \u2013 let\u2019s just run buses that are efficient.\u201d<\/p>\n

JTA CEO Nat Ford defended the program during intense questioning, emphasizing its importance for Jacksonville\u2019s future development. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe success of our city is going to largely depend on mobility,\u201d Ford said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a question of if, but when.\u201d<\/p>\n

RELATED: Duval DOGE questions JTA\u2019s autonomous vehicle program; some councilmembers think it\u2019s too expensive<\/a><\/p>\n

The debate comes as Jacksonville undergoes massive downtown redevelopment, including renovations to the Jaguars stadium, the relocation of the MOSH museum, and multiple hotel projects. The total downtown investment is estimated at $8 billion.<\/p>\n

Supporters argue that the autonomous vehicle infrastructure needs to be in place before the completion of major projects like The Shipyards development. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys are being forward thinking, innovative,\u201d said Council member Paul Arias Jr. \u201cWith over $8 billion in downtown development, we need to be reactive about how we\u2019re going to transport people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NAVI program only began charging fares on Oct. 1, and some council members suggest keeping rides free until downtown\u2019s population density increases. <\/p>\n

However, the committee has used the fact that NAVI only has about 1,600 riders per month as evidence that the program may be premature for Jacksonville\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A Jacksonville councilman said that JTA\u2019s autonomous vehicle infrastructure needs to be in place before…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[12813,116,118,117,799],"class_list":{"0":"post-34874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-duval-doge","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news","12":"tag-jta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34874","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=34874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}