InfoHive – Transportation

Who reached an agreement? Michigan & Tesla

Under the agreement, Tesla can directly deliver its vehicles to customers in the state

What about car titles?

• Tesla cannot issue titles in Michigan
• Another state can issue title, and the Michigan resident can transfer title in

Reuters | Michigan, Tesla reach agreement for direct car delivery: source

Yahoo Finance | Tesla Reaches Deal Clearing Way for Michigan Service Centers

Where: Colorado

What: SB20-44 (20202 | CO)

How does this bill reallocate transportation funding to locals?

• reallocation of the  sales and use tax of vehicle
• 22% to counties
• 18% to cities

Colorado Springs Independent | Transportation, education and justice on the legislative agenda 

What tech company is helping local governments? Rock Solid, of Austin, Texas

What does Rock Solid do? offers government and citizen engagement platforms

How are the platforms used to improve government?

• report malfunctioning parking kiosks
• report full park trash cans
• submit service requests for potholes
• reply to city calls for volunteers

Independent Record | Helena Residents Now Use an App to Request City Improvements

Where: New Jersey

What: An existing sales tax exemption for EV sales + a newly enacted $5000 rebate for EV purchase

How is the rebate funded? the state’s existing Clean Energy Fund

What other provisions are in the legislation?

• 10 year limit on the rebate
• 2025 deadline for 330,000 light-duty electric cars or trucks on the road
  • 2 million by 2035
• 2040 deadline for 85% of all new light-duty vehicles sold in New Jersey are to be electric
• 400 fast chargers in 200 charging stations by the end of 2025

Philadelphia Inquirer | NJ Accelerates Its Electric Vehicle Sales with New Rebate

Where: Ann Arbor, Michigan

What’s the partnership? Ann Arbor Connected Vehicle Test Environment

What are the details?

• largest deployment of connected vehicle technology in North America
• 2,500+ connected vehicles
• “talking” to some 75 connected intersections
• 7 years old
• to deploy and test technologies

Who is in the partnership collaborating to use tech data to improve transportation?

• City of Ann Arbor
•  Mcity, a research arm of the university designed to study advanced mobility research and serve as the nexus of academia, government and the private sector
• UMTRI [University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute]

What transportation issues does the partnership look to benefit?

• to understand where traffic bottlenecks occur to improve the city transportation plan
• improve transportation sustainability
• multimodal transportation

Government Technology | City Hopes to Use Car Data to Make Infrastructure Decisions

Where: North Carolina

What is a pilotless air taxi? a two-seat drone made by the Chinese company EHang

What North Carolina’s Transportation Secretary is saying: “We want to bring these kinds of opportunities to make sure that we’re economically competitive.”

Where is the regulatory and legislative issue: Federal Aviation Administration doesn’t permit autonomous aircraft to carry people

News & Observer | North America’s First Pilotless Air Taxi Takes Off in Raleigh

What is an adaptive scooter? Scooters targeting the population that meets 1 of 3 criteria:

• people who don’t need mobility assistance at home
• people who don’t qualify for home scooter purchase programs
• people who face limited mobility options in public

Where are the adaptive scooter pilot programs? San Francisco

Are there special considerations for adaptive scooter programs to support user adoption? Yes,

• additional personal customer service
• personal assistance

Tech Crunch | Uber kicks off adaptive electric scooter pilot in SF

The legislation: S 2252 (2020 | NJ)

The EV tax credits:

• 10 year credit program
• 1 time tax credit
• $30 million funding for program
• EV incentive equal to $25 per mile of EPA-rated electric-only range, up to a maximum of $5,000 per eligible vehicle

Other provisions:

• 5 year reassessment of state EV goals and standards
• 10 year EV goal set
• EV fleet standards for NJ buses, 100% EV by 2032
• state-wide network of high-speed EV charging stations

Insider NJ | Jersey Renews: Bipartisan EV Bill Passes Senate & Assembly

Which company? Lyft

What did Lyft do? Create a Safety Advisory Council

Who will serve on Lyft’s Safety Advisory Council?

• representatives from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network
• representatives from “It’s On Us”, a public awareness campaign launched by former U.S. President Barack Obama in 2014
• law enforcement groups
•  led by Eman Barhoumeh, its vice president of safety and customer engagement

What sparked the formation?

• Uber’s Safety report that acknowledged that Uber had received 3000 reports of sexual assault in the US in 2018
• A lawsuit concerning female passenger safety

NY Times | Lyft Forms Advisory Council to Improve Platform Safety

Engadget | Lyft forms yet another group to address passenger safety

Where: Connecticut

Which manufacturer is prohibited from selling in CT? Tesla

How is Tesla able to lease cars in the state?

The state Department of Motor Vehicles gave Tesla a license to lease vehicles

What does the state’s Auto Deal Association think? Jim Fleming, president of the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association, said he believes leasing is little different from selling cars and that Tesla is violating Connecticut law.

Hartford Courant | Connecticut Says Tesla Can’t Sell, So Tesla Leases