U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, joined by Barbara Bennett, President and COO of Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Inc. and Rick Clemmer CEO of NXP Semiconductors, announced seven finalists for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT) Smart City Challenge.
These seven winning cities will receive a $100,000 grant to further develop their proposals:
- Austin, Texas.
- Columbus, Ohio.
- Denver, Colorado.
- Kansas City, Missouri.
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
- Portland, Oregon.
- San Francisco, California.
Secretary Foxx was joined by representatives of the finalists, including Austin Mayor Steve Adler, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther, Kansas City Mayor Sly James, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto, and Portland Mayor Charlie Hales, as well as private sector partners at the announcement.
The USDOT has pledged up to $40 million (funding subject to future appropriations) to one city to help it define what it means to be a “Smart City “and become the country’s first city to fully integrate innovative technologies – self-driving cars, connected vehicles, and smart sensors – into their transportation network.
The finalists were chosen from 78 applications. Seven finalists were selected instead of five because of their outstanding potential to transform the future of urban transportation, say Secretary Foxx.
Secretary Foxx also announced a new Smart City Challenge partnership with Amazon Web Services (AWS), which will provide solution architecture and best practices guidance to the finalists to help them leverage AWS services for Smart City solutions, as well as award $1 Million of credits to the Challenge winner for AWS Cloud services and AWS Professional Services. AWS will also collaborate with U.S. DOT on efforts to engage the startup community, and bring their ideas to the finalists. The credits, support, and collaboration will help the winning city design and build a truly Smart City on the AWS Cloud.
Other sponsors are:
Mobileye will equip the winning city’s public bus system with their Mobileye’s Shield +TMon every bus which helps bus drivers avoid and mitigate imminent collisions and protect road users including bicyclists, pedestrians, and motorcyclists.
Autodesk will provide InfraWorks 360 and finalists will get access to (and training on) Infraworks 360, a modeling platform that uses 3-D visualizations and real-world data to plan major engineering projects.
NXP will provide the contest’s winning city with wireless communication modules that allow cars to securely exchange data, such as hazard warnings, over distances of more than a mile to prevent accidents and improve traffic flow.