Urban Planning

The San Francisco-based company will partner with autonomous driving tech firm May Mobility next year to field a fleet of Toyota Sienna minivans that will be accessible through its app. Precise details and timing are not yet clear, but initial deployments will use human “safety operators,” transitioning over time to fully autonomous operations.

The City Council heard testimony for and against the project Monday ahead of a final vote on whether OG&E can power the planned center. Actions on an accompanying development agreement plan and tax incentive pact were continued to Dec. 2.

San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency has approved a contract with Hitachi Rail for a new train control system. The replacement will move the Muni Metro off 1998 technology that runs on floppy disks.

Sila Nanotechnology is renovating a factory in Moses Lake, Wash., to make silicon anodes for lithium-ion batteries. Officials must train the skilled workforce the renewable energy industry needs, and they must secure energy sources.

Greenlane Infrastructure is developing the facility, a charging plaza in Colton, Calif., at the intersection of two heavily traveled truck corridors. The aim is to advance the transition to zero-emission trucking and fleets.

The City Council is examining how the city’s famous views are being preserved. A recent study session on design and development standards included a proposal to use new software to examine how views would be impacted by proposed development.

The project’s parent company recently pitched four new buildings to town officials, for an artificial intelligence data center. Currently, four buildings on the 30-acre site house bitcoin mining; a fifth should be finished next year.

Steven Martin, a longtime IT executive in the southwest, will join Glendale, Ariz., later this month as its CIO. He brings public- and private-sector leadership experience to the role, where he will set the city's tech strategy and provide ongoing program analysis.

The project, in the city’s far southwestern area, won City Council approval after months of opposition from neighbors who claimed it would endanger the environment. The developer said it would be an economic boon, not a threat.

The Riverside Co.’s acquisition reflects a belief these types of software will continue a growth spurt, fueled in part by governments adopting better tools. Cloudpermit says it has worked with more than 850 agencies.

A partnership between the ride-sharing and autonomous car companies will bring self-driving cars to the state capitals in Georgia and Texas sometime in 2025. Waymo already offers rides in self-driving cars in California and Arizona.

It can take about a decade for a high-speed electric vehicle charger to recoup its investment without government subsidies, according to a new report. But the need for public charging infrastructure may be unlikely to diminish.

One, in Red Oak, is a 480-megawatt data center campus on 292 acres. Construction is underway. A second, roughly $1 billion data center project on 60 acres near the Bush Turnpike got city economic incentives last week.

Its newly launched Local Government Research and Development Agenda, a nationwide undertaking, looks to provide research and science to cities. Interviews and workshops with 20 munis are underway.

A report assessed two North Carolina projects piloting low-speed autonomous shuttles, stood up by partners including the state Department of Transportation. It found the vehicles still have significant limitations.

Falls Church, Va., near the nation’s capital, is beginning the first phase of a smart city initiative to modernize traffic signals into one coordinated network. Other project phases include adaptive street lighting.

Pittsburgh startup Velo AI will use $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Transportation to inform cities on making streets safer. Its devices collect data showing sites for potential improvements like bike lanes and fixing potholes.

The San Bernardino County Transit Authority recently presented the first zero-emission passenger train in the U.S., the Zero Emission Multiple Unit, in California. It should begin serving a nine-mile transit line early next year.