Chula Vista invites private sector to develop drone and AV programmes

The city of Chula Vista in California is inviting researchers to propose projects, partnerships and pilot programmes on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and autonomous vehicles (AVs). The city has issued a ‘request for expressions of interest’ highlighting that city-owned facilities are now available to businesses and organisations. Eric Crockett, economic development director, says: “Chula Vista is the only city in the nation with federal recognition for both AV and UAS testing and validation in a real
March 7, 2019 Read time: 1 min

The city of Chula Vista in California is inviting researchers to propose projects, partnerships and pilot programmes on unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and autonomous vehicles (AVs).

The city has issued a ‘request for expressions of interest’ highlighting that city-owned facilities are now available to businesses and organisations.

Eric Crockett, economic development director, says: “Chula Vista is the only city in the nation with federal recognition for both AV and UAS testing and validation in a real-world environment.”

Available locations include an undeveloped 375-acre university site which is already being used by drone start-ups. For AV firms, the city is also offering 17,000 square feet of industrial space for vehicle maintenance.

“We’ve kept this solicitation as open-ended as possible because we want to encourage industry responses to be creative and innovative,” Crockett adds.

UTC

Related Content

  • October 7, 2019
    Driven demos AVs operating ‘safely’ in London
    The Driven Consortium has completed a week-long demonstration which it says shows that autonomous vehicles (AVs) can operate safely in London - with a safety driver. Driven - a £13.6 million initiative supported by the UK government - carried out the demo around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford in the east of the city. Driven has focused on completing fully-autonomous routes within the UK capital and the city of Oxford using Oxbotica’s autonomous software. Consortium members Moninet and Axa XL p
    Read More
  • October 7, 2019
    Driven demos AVs operating ‘safely’ in London
    The Driven Consortium has completed a week-long demonstration which it says shows that autonomous vehicles (AVs) can operate safely in London - with a safety driver. Driven - a £13.6 million initiative supported by the UK government - carried out the demo around Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford in the east of the city. Driven has focused on completing fully-autonomous routes within the UK capital and the city of Oxford using Oxbotica’s autonomous software. Consortium members Moninet and Axa XL p
    Read More
  • February 21, 2018
    Autonomous vehicles, smart cities: moving beyond the hype
    There is a lot of excited chatter about autonomous vehicles – but 2getthere’s Robbert Lohmann suggests we might need to take a step back and look realistically at what is achievable. You might be surprised that the chief commercial officer of a company delivering autonomous vehicles would begin an article with the suggestion that we need to get past the hype. And yet I do; because we have to, and urgently so. The hype prevents the development of autonomous vehicles that address actual transit needs. And
    Read More
  • June 25, 2021
    Who run the engineering world? Women!
    To mark International Women in Engineering Day, Krishna Desai of Cubic Transportation Systems shares the experiences of female engineers working at the company...
    Read More

Highlighted Content