{"id":377288,"date":"2025-11-14T02:15:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T02:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/377288\/"},"modified":"2025-11-14T02:15:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T02:15:21","slug":"jta-ceo-says-multi-million-dollar-autonomous-vehicle-venture-is-a-smart-investment-in-jacksonville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/377288\/","title":{"rendered":"JTA CEO says multi-million dollar autonomous vehicle venture is a \u2018smart investment\u2019 in Jacksonville"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Jacksonville is accelerating its role in transportation innovation, launching driverless shuttles downtown and preparing for a new electric vehicle manufacturing hub. Nathaniel Ford, CEO of the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA), sat down with This Week in Jacksonville<\/a> host Kent Justice to share what\u2019s happening and what\u2019s coming next.<\/p>\n

Back on June 30, Jacksonville launched NAVI<\/a> (Neighborhood Autonomous Vehicle Transit Service) \u2014 the first big autonomous public transit system in the U.S. <\/p>\n

Fourteen driverless vehicles cover a 3.2-mile route from downtown to the sports complex. Ford said the launch has drawn attention from all over the world and is just the start of something much bigger.<\/p>\n

RELATED: <\/b>JTA autonomous vehicle program among latest targets of Duval DOGE scrutiny<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNAVI was the first autonomous vehicle public transportation network of scale in the United States for revenue operations,\u201d Ford explained. He added that NAVI helps solve the tricky \u201cfirst and last mile\u201d problem \u2014 getting people to and from transit stops in areas where buses don\u2019t work so well.<\/p>\n

Right now, about 100 people ride NAVI each day, which is less than the 280 riders projected for 2035. Ford said that\u2019s normal when you\u2019re building transit ahead of new development. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a smart investment for the future,\u201d he said, even with some early criticism.<\/p>\n

But Jacksonville isn\u2019t just using these vehicles \u2014 it\u2019s going to build them too. Holon USA is setting up a manufacturing plant on the city\u2019s north side, expected to bring up to 800 jobs and nearly $2 billion in economic impact over the next decade. JTA and Holon are already working closely together, sharing space and collaborating on research.<\/p>\n

Ford also talked about training local talent, teaming up with colleges to prepare technicians for this new technology. Looking ahead, he sees a mix of buses, streetcars, light rail, and autonomous shuttles making it easier to get around as Jacksonville grows.<\/p>\n

You can hear more from Ford and get the full scoop on Jacksonville\u2019s transportation future. Catch the full interview on This Week in Jacksonville, Sunday at 9 a.m. on News4JAX.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Jacksonville is accelerating its role in transportation innovation, launching driverless shuttles downtown and preparing for…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":377289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-377288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-duval-county","10":"tag-fl","11":"tag-florida","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115545645400933837","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377288","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=377288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/377289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}