Skip to main content

Cavnue appoints first chief executive

Transport policy veteran Tyler Duvall served in the George W. Bush administration
By David Arminas September 30, 2020 Read time: 2 mins
Cavnue recently announced the 40-mile C/AV corridor project in the US state of Michigan (© Jakub Jirsák | Dreamstime.com)

Transport tech group Cavnue, which last month revealed its part in a 40-mile driverless car corridor in Michigan, has appointed its first chief executive.

Tyler Duvall has served in several roles in the US Department of Transportation, including as acting under secretary for policy, the agency’s third highest-ranking official.

He led the George W. Bush administration’s efforts to modernise transportation infrastructure through new procurement, technology and financing approaches.

Cavnue has also been a principal at consultancy McKinsey & Company, and joins Cavnue from SH 130 Concession Company in central Texas, where he oversaw the operation and maintenance of a 41-mile privately operated toll road between the cities of Austin and San Antonio.

Cavnue designs and operates physical and digital road infrastructure.

In August it announced a connected and autonomous Vehicle (C/AV) corridor project in conjunction with Michigan DoT, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and the city of Detroit.

The project seeks to create a more than 40-mile driverless vehicle corridor between the centre of Detroit and the city of Ann Arbor. Project partners include the University of Michigan, Ford Motor Company and the American Center for Mobility.

Cavnue, formed earlier this year by Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners, has also announced that Mark de la Vergne is the new director of the company’s Michigan office.

He will focus on designing the first fully dedicated connected and autonomous laneway in the US. De la Vergne previously served as chief of mobility innovation for Detroit mayor Mike Duggan.

Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners builds, owns, operates and invests in both advanced infrastructure projects and technology companies with innovations that enable and apply to those projects.

Among the company’s investors are Google’s parent company Alphabet and the Canada-based Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, a major institutional investor in global infrastructure.

Related Content

  • June 21, 2012
    Zipcar in peer-to-peer car sharing
    International car sharing network Zipcar has announced it is the lead investor in a US$13.7 million Series A round of funding for Wheelz, which claims to be the first peer-to-peer (P2P) car sharing company targeting college campus communities. “Based on our analysis and primary research, we believe P2P could expand the total addressable market for car sharing,” said Zipcar chairman and CEO Scott Griffith, who added he believes Wheelz has the right leadership, technology and business model to succeed in the
  • May 5, 2016
    AV/ridesharing mix wins major auto investment
    The US has a new trend in personal mobility and David Crawford takes a closer look. US automaker General Motors and ridesharer Lyft’s announcement of a strategic partnership aimed at delivering, over time, an integrated network of on-demand autonomous as well as conventional vehicles has taken the nation’s car industry from traditional manufacturing to new arenas.
  • June 5, 2020
    Fabulos robo-buses hit European streets
    EU-backed AV scheme aims to solve urban first-/last-mile problems
  • June 25, 2018
    US Cities push for smarter poles
    US Cities The need to connect existing infrastructure has led various US transit authorities into imaginative alleyways: David Crawford examines some new roles for street furniture. US cities are vying with each other in developing schemes to create a new generation of connected places. Their strategies include taking advantage of their streetlight poles’ height and ubiquity to give them new roles in supporting intelligent nodes. They are now being equipped for collecting real-time data on key transport