JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Tesla\u2019s new Cybercab service officially launched in Austin, Texas on Friday, but you may have caught a glimpse of the gold-colored vehicles on Jacksonville streets in recent weeks.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax observed several Cybercabs driving around the Southside on Friday, with drivers behind the wheel.<\/p>\n
While Tesla did not respond when asked to confirm whether the tech is being tested on Jacksonville roadways, the Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Office did confirm Tesla has been coordinating with the agency during the initial rollout of Cybercabs in the city.<\/p>\n
News that Jacksonville may soon have a fully autonomous taxi service coming to town is already generating excitement among city leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the future and it\u2019s here. It\u2019s happening today,\u201d said Jacksonville City Council Member Rory Diamond (R-District 13).<\/p>\n
Diamond, who serves as council liaison to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, argued the impending launch of Cybercab service in Jacksonville puts further scrutiny on the city\u2019s own investments in self-driving shuttle services.<\/p>\n
Action News Jax has extensively covered low ridership<\/a>, high costs<\/a> and technology issues<\/a> surrounding JTA\u2019s Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Innovation (NAVI) shuttle program.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, it absolutely makes no sense. The private sector was always gonna do this better than any government. Now they are. It\u2019s here,\u201d said Diamond.<\/p>\n >>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n But immediately after Tesla launched the service in Austin, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced an investigation into the Cybercab<\/a>.<\/p>\n That investigation is looking into whether Cybercabs meet federal standards that require cars to have things like rearview mirrors, brake pedals and steering wheels – all things the Cybercabs lack.<\/p>\n Under state law surrounding autonomous vehicles<\/a>, it seems the Cybercabs have the all-clear to operate on Florida roads. But, if it\u2019s determined the self-driving taxis are out of compliance with federal regulations, that would likely delay the full rollout of the service here in Florida.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Diamond said he hopes those questions are answered quickly, to keep the door open for the technology to fully roll out here in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll figure out what the feds are going to do soon enough, but ultimately that\u2019s what we\u2019re gonna have,\u201d said Diamond. \u201dBy the way, this whole NAVI system is not street legal without a driver. So, at least this is driverless.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Tesla\u2019s new Cybercab service officially launched in Austin, Texas on Friday, but you may have…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1043659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[7320,5229,7323,3188,723,7324,7310,7327,7325,7326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7322,7321],"class_list":["post-1043658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action-news-jax","tag-america","tag-cbs47","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-fox30","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-fl","tag-northeast-florida","tag-southeast-georgia","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-wfox","tag-wjax"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117214941433199650","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1043659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}