The revitalized waterfront in Jacksonville, Florida, will soon host fully autonomous public transit. T-Mobile and Miller Electric have announced a collaboration to use a 5G private network to connect a fleet of autonomous vehicles along the city’s waterfront as part of Jacksonville’s Ultimate Urban Circulator program.
Miller Electric will use a 5G private network from T-Mobile to support the operations of the new bus-shaped, fully autonomous shuttles that will transport visitors along a three-mile stretch from EverBank Stadium to the new waterfront hub.
Craig Bowman, director of technology, Miller Electric, said, “This turnkey solution will enable the vehicles to navigate the streets alongside other vehicle traffic and will ensure the bandwidth we need is available to stream real-time video surveillance and two-way audio and video communications between passengers and employees.”
Advanced 5G technology is key for cities and organizations looking to implement smart city initiatives such as AVs. Other solutions, such as wi-fi, have limited reach and can limit the reliability of an autonomous fleet.
The T-Mobile 5G private network will deliver highly secure and dependable two-way communications between the shuttles and the command center. This includes real-time telemetry data from onboard sensors as well as audio and video feeds to connect employees with passengers.
“5G is the key that will unlock the autonomous vehicle future that science fiction has teased us with for years,” said Mishka Dehghan, SVP, strategy, product and solutions engineering, T-Mobile Business Group.
The 5G private network infrastructure will be built alongside the already planned power and fiber solutions that support the rest of the waterfront project. This means that T-Mobile can deliver the network performance and security Miller Electric requires for the AVs without any additional infrastructure.
The autonomous shuttles are projected to be operational by mid 2025 and represent the first out of three phases of the city’s planned Ultimate Urban Circulator.