By: Laura Christmas

LAKE NONA, FL — The idea of autonomous vehicles taking you where you need to go is an idea that has always been a futuristic concept, until now – and Clay County leaders are exploring the possibility of utilizing the expanding nationwide movement to augment public transit in their communities.

On a quintessentially muggy Tuesday morning ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, a group of Clay County leaders boarded a van to travel the two-and-a-half-hour trip south to Lake Nona, a 17-square mile neo-urban community located in Orlando, FL. Among the group were Commission Chair Jim Renninger, County Manager Howard Wanamaker, Economic Development Corporation President Crawford Powell, WGI Transportation Alternative Delivery Vice President Walter Kloss, and WGI’s Senior Manager of Business Development Monte Lambert.

For some of the group, it would be their second trip to Beep, a leading provider of autonomous shared mobility networks with nearly 40 deployments in nine states. Beep is dedicated to transforming transportation and providing safe, clean, autonomous solutions that reduce congestion, improve the environment, and deliver on transportation equity and access.

It’s that concept that Clay County leaders are exploring to possibly bring to their communities to expand public transportation.

“It’s not farfetched,” said Commission Chair Jim Renninger, “We’ve identified several areas from one end of our county to the other that could benefit from this service. Consistently, our goal is to improve the quality of life for our residents, and this would be a step in that mission, augmenting public transportation to provide more access to jobs, healthcare, and recreation.”

Beep is headquartered in Lake Nona, which is one of the fastest-growing communities in the country. Lake Nona engaged Beep to bring the region’s first autonomous shuttles to its community. Now, Move Nona is the largest and longest-running autonomous vehicle network at one location in the United States.

Each shuttle operates daily on regular fixed routes, they hold up to 11 passengers and operate at a maximum speed of 15 miles per hour. Though the shuttles are driverless, a Beep safety attendant accompanies the shuttles. Currently, the cost to ride the shuttles is subsidized by the developer of Lake Nona, Tavistock Development Company.

Since its inception, Beep has expanded its partnerships and reach to launch similar transportation models in Atlanta, California, Hawaii, North Carolina, Wyoming, and across Florida, including Orlando, Altamonte Springs, Florida State College at Jacksonville, and in a recent announcement, the city of Jacksonville. They will announce several more pilots this year.

In June, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority announced the groundbreaking of an Autonomous Innovation Center (AIC). The AIC is an integral part of the upcoming Bay Street Innovation Corridor, Phase I of the Ultimate Urban Circulator (U2C) program—a comprehensive initiative to modernize and expand transportation options in the Downtown Jacksonville area and introduce autonomous vehicles into JTA’s transportation system.

WGI, a national design and professional services firm leading in technology-based solutions for the construction of public infrastructure and real estate development, is also involved in the project.

“We see the possibilities for this cutting-edge technology in areas outside of large cities like Jacksonville,” WGI Transportation Alternative Delivery Vice President Walter Kloss, “As a Clay County resident myself, I can see where this service would be a benefit to increase connectivity among our communities.”

On Tuesday, the Clay County group met with Beep’s SVP of Public Affairs and cofounder Mark Reid to discuss where the program is headed, and how it could augment services to Clay County residents.

“It was a great conversation,” Renninger said, “We talked about several possibilities. College Drive, Wells Road, Keystone Heights, and our rails to trails were all on the table for potential locations. None of it is out of reach, and we feel strongly that this could provide even more opportunities to our residents who don’t have readily available transportation access and expand our public transportation program.”

As with any major project, funding sources like grants, infrastructure needs, and logistics are key components that would need to be ironed out before hitting the go button. But the possibility, which has become a reality across the state, is there. With Clay County leadership’s goal toward continuous quality-of-life improvement, the possibility of autonomous vehicles to expand public transportation is a step in that direction.

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