Category Archives: business trend

Local TREND. Anatomy of a Driverless Taxi Rollout. Where. What. How.

City: Phoenix Area

Self Driving Taxi Proposal: 

  • Waymo is proposing an autonomous taxi service in 100 square miles in metro Phoenix
  • In preparation, Waymo testing has:
    • driven on public roads for more than 5 million miles
    • traveled five billion miles in computer simulation

Response to the autonomous driving fatality in Phoenix: Waymo CEO John Krafcik said his company’s technology could have avoided the incident

KTAR News | Waymo plans for 100-square-mile driverless taxi service in Phoenix…

3 Ways the Saguaro Cactus Blossom Governor Actively Promoted Uber

Open records requests, after the self driving Uber fatality in Arizona, reveal the following ways Governor Ducey actively promoted Uber publicly:

  • He tweeted an Uber ad
  • He helped Uber deal with other state officials
  • He was open to wearing an Uber T-shirt at an official event

NYPost | Arizona governor, Uber kept self-driving car tests a secret

High Speed Rail Opposition in the Bluebonnet State. Easter Trending.

Texas High Speed Rail opposition points from the week of March 15th 2018,  are trending:

Government Technology | Is a High-Speed Rail Line Right for Texas?

Dallas Morning News | Dallas-to-Houston high-speed rail plan will make Texas’ I-35 corridor a loser, competitor says

4 Point Opposition to Houston to Dallas High Speed Rail. 3 Counterpoints of Support. High Speed v. Higher Speed.

Who is making these statements? SNCF America, Inc  in written comments to Federal Railway Administration…

4 Actions Cities Can Impact Ride Hailing Apps + 2 Ways Ride Hailing Companies Can Impact Local Ordinances

4 Ways Cities Can impact Ride Hailing:

  • zoning regulations
  • parking
  • curbside allotment
  • city messaging

2 Ways Ride Hailing Services can impct local policy by:

  • participating in land development code amendments
  • engaging in long-term discussions on city problems

Automotive News | Austin, we still have a problem: Return of ridehailing services masks lingering tensions over mobility models

4 Point Opposition to Houston to Dallas High Speed Rail. 3 Counterpoints of Support. High Speed v. Higher Speed.

Who is making these statements? SNCF America, Inc  in written comments to Federal Railway Administration (FRA) Draft Environmental Impact Statement (Draft EIS) for the Dallas to Houston High-Speed Rail Project

What is causing the impending “doom” on passenger rail in Texas?

  • 1 Company benefits. The Texas Central Rail Project is “designed around the best interest of a single company, not what is best for Texans or the state’s rail transportation future.”
  • Limited Area. Modern rail is only…

State dealer incentives for EVs. Anatomy of the Dealer Incentive Program.

State: Connecticut

What’s the dealer EV incentive program called? the Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Automotive Purchase Rebate (CHEAPR) program

What incentives are available to auto dealers under Connecticut’s program?

  • $500 per car sold
  • “Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, in partnership with the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association (CARA), present an annual “Revolutionary Dealer Award” to the dealership that sells or leases the most electric cars,…

4 Legislative Proposals EVs + Cities+Businesses + Funding

Colorado Governor is prposing the following legislative proposals in response to the growing use of EVs:

  • more funding to build out Colorado’s network of charging stations
  • Buy more electric-powered buses
  • Push public and private employers to make charging ports available for workers

Colorado’s Trasnportation Commission is adapting to EVs by:

  •  experimenting with ways to charge motorists by how far they drive as opposed to the gas tax

Denver Post | Electric cars and technology are upending…

Business TREND. New Sharing Economy. Scooter Sharing + 3 Ordinances/Laws/Regs for Scooters.

The new business: scooter sharing via Bird

Launch city: Santa Monica CA

Seed funding: Yes, $15M to expand nation wide

The laws/regulations/ordinances at play:

  • Do scooters need permits to park?
  • Do scooters need permits to park on sidewalks?
  • Do scooter sharing comapnies need a permit? Satan Monica wants it to have a permit like a food trailer vendor.
  • What kind of local government/scooter sharing compoany data sharing arrangement can be had?

Tech Crunch | This former Uber (and Lyft) exec…

Anatomy of a Cross State HyperLoop Deal. 3 Pieces of Legislative Work in the Interim.

The company: Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT)

The state partners: North Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) and the Illinois’ Department of Transportation (IDOT)

The deal: Connecting Chicago and Cleveland by Hyperloop. The starting point: a feasibility study to determine the viability of a number of different corridors. The “first real public-private partnership to bring Hyperloop travel to the US”

The legislative work:

  • Ohio’s legislature passed a resolution supporting the…