Leaders are developing a mobility innovation district in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area to take full advantage of its strategic location in fostering next-generation technologies related to autonomous driving, delivery and aviation.
Located in Alliance, Texas, the Mobility Innovation Zone is located near busy air cargo hubs, rail lines, and Interstate 35, and will support the growth of industries centered on autonomous trucking and air taxis. and can inspire new approaches in package delivery.
Alliance is a 27,000-acre master-planned community on the north side of Fort Worth. The company's mobility innovation initiative began in 2020 through a partnership with Fort Worth. Fort Worth has made mobility an industry in its strategic plan.
“This is an opportunity to build on what we were already focused on, in terms of not just attracting large companies, but actually building companies here with really creative technology. , it's a really good time to think about how we can move forward with that effort,'' said Robert Stearns, economic development director for the City of Fort Worth.
Authorities are already recruiting companies to further develop their technology in the innovation zone. Last-mile autonomous robot-like deliveries are underway at Hillwood Community, one of the Alliance's master-planned developments, as well as drone deliveries in partnership with Irish company Mana Drone Delivery.
Ian Kinne, Logistics Innovation Director at Hillwood, which manages the Innovation Zone, said the challenge was not just to inject technology into neighborhoods, but to ensure they promoted amenities that improved quality of life.
“It doesn't make sense for a two-ton vehicle to deliver a two-pound package,” he said, a common refrain among package delivery innovators who focus on making smarter matches between packages and delivery vehicles. He repeated his catchphrase.
Facilities like Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, about two miles south, serve as hubs for the development of drone technology and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
“I think there's a real opportunity there,” Stearns said, noting that drone delivery company Wing has conducted tests in the area. Wing recently signed a deal with Walmart to deliver items weighing up to 3 pounds to the area.
“I definitely think that as technology continues to advance, people will start to see future scalability in some of these models,” Stearns added.
The Alliance is also partnering with companies developing hydrogen fuel cell technology and self-driving vehicle companies like Drive.ai to establish the region as a developer of autonomous trucking technology.
Its architects believe that innovation zones help planners shape roads to serve more types of users with more types of vehicles, and the type of traffic management that modern cities require. I see it as a place to develop technology.
Fort Worth is looking at transportation innovation opportunities internally, “obviously from a traffic management perspective,” Stearns said. “But from a pure economic development standpoint, being able to point to these innovative technologies being developed and growing here puts Fort Worth on the map in a way we've never seen before.” You keep putting it on top.”
