US DOT Smart City Challenge Promises $50 Million To Winning City
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Contest is designed to promote the deployment of intelligent transportation.
The United States Department of Transportation wants our cities to be smarter — when it comes to transportation, that is. As part of a new initiative, the US DOT has called on cities across the nation to develop innovative and productive systems to power our transportation. The winning city will receive a $50 million award for their successful implementation of innovation.
And the US DOT is not alone in recognizing these advances; Continental has announced it will pledge at least $1 million to the winning city to provide improved safety and connectivity technology as part of its transportation network.
“At Continental, safety is the cornerstone of everything we do. That’s why we are proud to join the U.S. DOT’s national Smart City Challenge as a key provider of active safety technology and secure connectivity to help advance the development of future mobility services such as automated driving infrastructure solutions, Intelligent Transportation Systems led by our Silicon Valley team and V2X technology,” explained Samir Salman, CEO of Continental North America.
“The Smart City Challenge aligns with our company’s mission of Vision Zero, which is our goal to globally eliminate traffic and road fatalities, making mobility safer, more convenient and more efficient for everyone.”
This year’s Smart City Challenge winner was Columbus, OH. Other finalist cities included Austin, TX; Denver, CO; Kansas City, MO; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; and San Francisco, CA. The finalists proposed project involving emerging technology, including self-driving cars, wireless electric vehicle charging, and vehicle-to-infrastructure connections. Finalists received $100,000 from the DOT to build partnerships and develop proposals to deploy the emerging technology.
“The Smart City Challenge is a historic moment in the future of mobility. It is an exciting venture that requires tremendous private and public sector collaboration,” said Seval Oz, CEO of Continental’s Intelligent Transportation Systems based in Silicon Valley. “The ITS team is stepping up to work together with the U.S. DOT and the winning city to provide the critical systems and services to advance U.S. cities in preparation for future mobility.”
The Smart City Challenge was launched by Secretary Foxx in December 2015 in response to the trends identified in the Beyond Traffic draft report.