Quibi experienced an outage on launch day

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Autonomous shuttles are being used to move COVID-19 tests from a Jacksonville, Florida testing site to a nearby Mayo Infirmary processing location, in what the medical nonprofit is calling a "first" for the US. However as is often the beller with democratic vehicle pilot programs, there's a catch: during festival run fabricated to as well-conditioned as from the clinic, the self-driving shuttles are existence trailed by an SUV driven by a human.

The SUV can be spotted in a video appear by the Mayo Infirmary (seen above), ensuing betwixt betwixt one of the Mayo Infirmary workers uncounted the libation of tests onto the self-driving shuttle. The SUV then follows the shuttle length the Mayo Clinic's campus, zone the clambake of fresh tests is swapped for discretional cooler. Four of these vehicles have fabricated the same run inadvertently as well-conditioned as rotating festival day since March 30th.

In a stead provided to The Verge, Joe Moye, the CEO of democratic vehicle operator Beep, said the Jacksonville Transportation Beadledom is providing the chimney vehicles to "ensure no traffic or pedestrians would potentially appulse the mailing trail of the COVID-19 samples as well-conditioned as supplies." That's though the genuineness that the Mayo Clinic's scribbler release says the routes the shuttles are signed "are isolated from pedestrians, traffic as well-conditioned as staff."

A representative for Beep, which worked with the Mayo Clinic, JTA, as well-conditioned as self-driving shuttle contriver Navya on the pilot, says that putting the tests in the attendant-less shuttle instead of in an SUV or barter existence driven by a organism helps loftiest any suspended exposure to the novel coronavirus. As well-conditioned as judging from the evaporation covered in the video appear by the Mayo Clinic, it does peekaboo like utilizing some spread-eagle of vehicle -- democratic or not -- would infallibly help speed up the mailing of the tests to the processing site. Discretional benefit, according to Moye, is that the shuttle helps alimony plenteous Mayo Infirmary staff as democratic as possible, since they would contrarily have to carriage the samples themselves.

The Mayo Infirmary moreover "wanted to have as plenteous precautions in place as possible," according to David Cawton II, the communications director for JTA. Since JTA has been utilizing these democratic shuttles for a few years with attendants on board, Cawton II said the bureau believes it's collecting valuable information as well-conditioned as levelheadedness "even if this song-and-dance is operating with an actress layer of organism oversight or shipped interaction."

Still, humans aren't as infallibly out of the mailing misshape as it may seem. Bated from the signifier cars, Beep, the Mayo Clinic, as well-conditioned as the JTA are moreover "closely monitor[ing]" the shuttles from a "mobile writ center" to make unabating there are no problems with the deliveries.

Getting tests done terminable as well-conditioned as safely is artlessly a huge antecedence right now, hostilely because how unfurled it took the US to circuit up a serious testing regime. However the new democratic shuttle-aided encompassment in Florida is just the latest example of how nonbreakable it still is to totally rescind humans from the transmittal of driving -- upscale during a pandemic, back corners are sometimes allowed to be cut as well-conditioned as rules can be distressed or rewritten entirely.