Kimberly Gross Kimberly Gross

Toward a More Equitable Transportation Future?

Two years running, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg has spoken at SXSW on the future of transportation, and two years running he has focused on equity. In 2021, in a keynote titled “Pete Buttigieg on Equitable and Empathetic Transportation,” the Secretary touched on historic inequities in infrastructure development (e.g., the building of highways through “the path of least resistance” in black and brown neighborhoods) and the need to address so-called “transit deserts” to literally connect more people with opportunity. He revisited these themes in his 2022 remarks, naming equity as one of five core issues on which the DOT is focused (along with safety, economic development, climate, and transformation), and emphasizing “[i]t is so, so important, with this much money going into our transportation system, that we deploy it in ways that are going to benefit everybody.”

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Kimberly Gross Kimberly Gross

Thoughts from the Driver’s Seat with Mike Nelson

A “Costcoesque Battery Choice” Revisited

A few weeks ago in this post we observed that American consumers’ desire for bigger and bigger EV batteries may not be reflective of actual driving needs, nor conducive to advancing many of the objectives of electrification. This week, as partner Mike Nelson prepares to take delivery of a new Rivian truck, he walks us through his own “Costcoesque battery choice.” Did he opt for the Standard pack (projected 260+ mile range), Large pack (EPA estimated 314 mile range), or Max pack (projected 400+ mile range)? Watch the video to find out what he chose, and why.

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Kimberly Gross Kimberly Gross

What We’re Reading

In the wake of surprising news that Argo AI is shutting down, we are expanding our headline coverage this week and dedicating the post to various viewpoints on the future of autonomy.

Ford, VW-backed Argo AI is shutting down

TechCrunch, October 26, 2022

Ford Abandons the Self-Driving Road to Nowhere

Wired, October 28, 2022

Driverless cars aren’t going away, but we need to lower our expectations about them

The Verge, October 28, 2022

The automaker path to autonomous cars has changed

Axios, October 28, 2022

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Kimberly Gross Kimberly Gross

300 Mile+ EV Range: Better to Have, and Not Need, Than to Need and Not Have?

Proponents of electric vehicles (EVs) point to our current transportation system as a key contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change—an accusation that is not entirely misplaced. Transportation accounted for 23% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions worldwide in 2019 and 29% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the US. By contrast, experts broadly agree that EVs create a lower carbon footprint over the course of their lifetime than do cars and trucks fitted with internal combustion engines. Last year, for example, researchers from the universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Nijmegen in The Netherlands found that EVs are superior to gasoline powered vehicles from an environmental perspective in 95% of the world.

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