Municipalities Explore Autonomous Vehicles to Expand Citizen Mobility

Around the nation, cities are experimenting with autonomous vehicles, or AV, as part of their transportation mix.

In Ann Arbor, Mich., residents can shuttle across town in self-driving vehicles thanks to a partnership between May Mobility, the University of Michigan’s Mcity and the economic development organization Ann Arbor SPARK…

Anticipating the trend toward autonomy and seeking to establish themselves as leaders in civic tech, many cities now have AV pilots up and running as a way to enhance safety, promote sustainability and expand public transit…

For Ann Arbor’s AV initiative, “there isn’t any funding from the city itself,” she says. Instead, funders for the AV project include Mcity; important Safety Technologies, an emerging technology company working on pedestrian safety; 4M, Ann Arbor’s first co-living townhomes; the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Office of Future Mobility and Electrification; and Ann Arbor SPARK.