Carson City Mayor Bob Crowell attended a joint meeting of the University of Nevada, Reno and a coalition of partners to embark on an ambitious effort to explore solutions for safe, clean and efficient transportation and to establish a “Living Lab” in northern Nevada. The effort — known as Intelligent Mobility — launched at an announcement event at the Innevation Center in Reno Wednesday.
The Living Lab concept initially will use the Regional Transportation Commission of Washoe County’s state-of-the-art electric buses manufactured by Proterra. The driver-operated buses will be fully instrumented with a number of systems to sense, gather and integrate a range of data. Intelligent Mobility builds on the expertise of several university researchers who will use this data in the development of new ideas, technologies and systems.
“The most important thing we can do for our city and our region is to create a culture of entrepreneurship and technological advancement,” Crowell said. “We’re discussing how Carson City will become part of the Living Lab to participate and facilitate the study with our vehicles and infrastructure.”
Intelligent Mobility is supported by the Governor’s Office for Economic Development. In addition to GOED, the RTC and Proterra, the coalition of partners also includes the City of Reno; City of Sparks; Carson City; the Nevada Department of Transportation; the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles; the Center for Alternative Fuels, Engines and Emissions based at West Virginia University; and Fraunhofer Institute for Transportation and Infrastructure Systems IVI in Dresden, Germany, part of the Fraunhofer Organization, Europe’s largest application-oriented research organization which brings global perspective and expertise in transportation and infrastructure to the effort.
“The Intelligent Mobility Living Lab is an international partnership born out of Governor Sandoval’s trade mission to Germany in 2015,” Crowell said. “As the capitol city of Nevada, we are proud to participate in research that is going to improve the safety and efficiency of the way we drive in the future.”
The university’s Nevada Center for Applied Research, which is also supported by the Governor’s Office for Economic Development and Nevada’s Knowledge Fund, will serve as the central access and coordination point for Intelligent Mobility.
