Jacksonville Transportation Authority's NAVI autonomous vehicle.Jacksonville Transportation Authority's NAVI autonomous vehicle.
A rendering of a NAVI vehicle on the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's Downtown Skyway, covered for use as part of the U2C. | Jacksonville Daily Record

JTA: ‘Everything is on the table’ regarding autonomous vehicles and gas tax plans

Published on August 28, 2026 at 11:21 am
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A Jacksonville Transportation Authority executive said autonomous public transit development in Downtown Jacksonville and surrounding neighborhoods will be reexamined amid a second straight year of revenue shortfalls and expense increases for the JTA.

Cleveland Ferguson, who was named interim CEO of JTA at the Aug. 27 board meeting, said “everything is on the table” as the authority considers how to spend $247 million that was planned for the build-out of the Ultimate Urban Circulator, or U2C, as the authority faces cuts to staff and service along with increases in rider fares.

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Ostensibly, options for JTA’s autonomous transit program could be slowing it down or eliminating it.

“We are going to work through a plan,” Ferguson said, asked about the future of revenue from a local six-cent gas tax. “We will be having conversations with the city, both the mayor’s office and the City Council, about making those decisions in the future. So we are definitely going to have those conversations.”

Read the rest of this story from Jacksonville Today partner the Jacksonville Daily Record.