Mayo Clinic begins using driverless vehicles to deliver COVID-19 tests

Mayo Clinic has begun using driverless vehicles to deliver essential COVID-19 tests to a processing lab. The initiative in Jacksonville, Florida is a collaboration between the local transport authority, Navya, and Beep. Four autonomous vehicles are initially being used and will transport COVID-19 tests from a drive-through testing facility to a processing lab on Mayo Clinic’s campus. The shuttles have been running the route every day since March 30th. One of the shuttles is being provided by the Jacksonville Transport Authority which has been testing driverless vehicles since 2017 to prepare for an expansion of its Jacksonville Skyway automated people mover. “This development is a historic moment for the Jacksonville Transportation Authority,” says Nathaniel P. Ford, Sr., CEO of Jacksonville Transportation Authority. “Along with our partners, Beep, NAVYA and Mayo Clinic, we are leveraging our learnings from three years of testing autonomous vehicles through our Ultimate Urban Circulator program.”