{"id":45438,"date":"2025-11-13T18:28:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/45438\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T18:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T18:28:17","slug":"jta-and-german-automaker-holon-unveil-prototype-for-new-autonomous-vehicles-104-5-wokv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/45438\/","title":{"rendered":"JTA and German automaker HOLON unveil prototype for new autonomous vehicles \u2013 104.5 WOKV"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville Transportation Authority and German automotive manufacturer HOLON<\/a> unveiled the prototype for their new fully autonomous vehicle on Wednesday \u2014 a sleek, driverless shuttle the agency hopes will transform downtown transportation.<\/p>\n

JTA has already preordered 100 of the vehicles, priced at an estimated $409,000 each. The futuristic shuttles are designed to replace the modified Ford Transit vans currently operating the route.<\/p>\n

>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n

But there\u2019s one major problem: the vehicles aren\u2019t legal to drive on U.S. roads.<\/p>\n

During a recent JTA committee meeting, a member of the Duval DOGE Committee noted that HOLON\u2019s autonomous shuttles have not been approved for operation anywhere in the country.<\/p>\n

[DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Holon has applied for a waiver from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) that would allow its vehicles to operate without traditional equipment such as driver controls, windshields, lamps, and crash protection systems. HOLON\u2019s request has been pending since November of last year\u2014 and there\u2019s no guarantee it will be approved.<\/p>\n

If denied, it\u2019s unclear what that would mean for JTA\u2019s purchase agreement.<\/p>\n

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Regardless of the outcome, JTA has already signed a deal to buy 100 Holon shuttles.<\/p>\n

The rollout comes as JTA faces growing scrutiny over its autonomous vehicle program. The agency\u2019s current semi-autonomous shuttles \u2014 converted Ford Transit vans \u2014 still require a driver behind the wheel when routes become too complex for the technology.<\/p>\n

Last week, Action News Jax reported that JTA is also in a contract dispute with software provider Balfour Beatty, which could leave the system without an operating platform for months after the end of the year.<\/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","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 The Jacksonville Transportation Authority and German automotive manufacturer HOLON unveiled the prototype for their new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45439,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9286,7840,29886,8580,29889,29888,18517,29890,29884,116,118,117,29883,799,634,29887,9323,7842,11901,29885,9285],"class_list":["post-45438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-ben","tag-ben_becker","tag-duval_joge_committee","tag-ford","tag-hollande","tag-holo","tag-holon","tag-iona_govino","tag-jackocavino","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_transportation_authority","tag-jta","tag-local","tag-national_highway_traffic_safety_administration","tag-navi","tag-tanika_hughes","tag-transit","tag-wave","tag-yona"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45438","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=45438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}