Posted on 11/15/2019 12:52:21 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Orange County has received a $20 million federal grant to expand its autonomous shuttle system at Lake Nona, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao said Tuesday, part of a combined $62 million in transportation awards to three Florida cities.
Chao was at Lake Nona, a southeast Orlando neighborhood, along with Gov. Ron DeSantis and state transportation secretary Kevin Thibault to reveal a combined $883 million in Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development (BUILD) grants nationwide.
Orange County was among just a handful out of more than 600 applications across the U.S. to get funding.
The grant to the Orange’s Local Alternative Mobility Network Project at Lake Nona will create designated lanes for the already existing driverless bus system called Beep that kicked off in September.
The service, which currently includes two shuttles and runs 1.2 miles throughout a fixed route between Lake Nona Town Center and the village center in Laureate Park, will be expanded to include 25 miles of dedicated route lanes throughout the booming neighborhood.
Concerns have been raised over driverless vehicles, especially after an Uber autonomous vehicle struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, but proponents argue they’re safer than ones with drivers.
Central Florida has been deemed an autonomous vehicle proving ground by the U.S Department of Transportation.
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer has talked about eventually getting the technology downtown in its LYMMO buses, while Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings has said it could one day be used to shuttle visitors around International Drive and the Orange County Convention Center.
The Lake Nona project will also include a 21,000-square-foot “mobility hub,” which Jessi Blakley, vice president for Nona developer Tavistock, said would be equivalent to a train station.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Driverless buses? What could POSSIBLY go WRONG???
Your gas tax dollars hard at work...
I wonder if most of the folks living in these places even know this is being done.
The ambulance chaser lawyers love them driverless cars, trucks and busses. NIn the real world no one will insure these pos (not ready for prime time) vehicles except maybe the Federal Government.
Why are my and your tax dollars being wasted on this??? Let them fund their pwn system.
What if it works. 20 million is chump change-at least today.
may be! But I’d rather have it funded by the auto industry - the ones who will make the profits.
I like the one where the lady was walking a bicycle across the street, between cross-walks, and a self-driving Uber wasn’t able to figure out what to make of it (road hazard, nothing to worry about, maybe a person, maybe a bicycle...confusion!), and it just pumped along until 1.6 seconds out, then it couldn’t stop in time.
Usually if I get confused, I slow down first and ask questions later. But my guess is that the soy-boy who programmed the car never drives, or at least hates driving (probably due to guilt), and so it didn’t occur to him to have the car first slow down until it could sort out the scenario.
Anyway, the usual technology supporters here and elsewhere were blaming her for J-walking, which she was doing. But, maybe because I’m not a ‘technology’ guru, I just think the death penalty for J-walking is a bit harsh. Heck, I don’t even honk at people like that, much less run them down...but then again, maybe that’s me.
Can’t wait to see what happens when one of the boyz in the hood j-walks in front of one of these buses doing the glare and slow walk shuffle.
Sure, like no one’s lap top has ever had the blue screen of death, a virus or has ever frozen up. Those lap tops have humans right there fixing the problem but not those buses.
Isn’t it “Jay-walking”?
(Like a blue jay on the ground, walking?)
Can’t wait to see what happens when one of the boyz in the hood j-walks in front of one of these buses doing the glare and slow walk shuffle.
Lake Nona is a upscale new development suburban area.
I live here and I didn’t know until I read it on FR.
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