A $50 Million Plan to Get Cities Thinking About Driverless Cars

Given all the advances being made in driverless cars, America’s cities have been startlingly slow to incorporate the technology into their plans. A recent analysis found that, as of mid-2013, just one of the 25 largest U.S. metropolitan planning organizations bothered to mention autonomous vehicles in its long-term outlook—that single nod coming in a brief sidebar. But dangle up to $50 million out there for a futuristic transport vision and it’s amazing how quickly things change.

The U.S. Department of Transportation did just that in December when it announced the Smart City Challenge, an urban innovation contest that asked midsized metros to draw up ideas for improving safety and mobility with driverless cars, intelligent infrastructure, street sensors, and the like. Since then 78 cities have applied, with DOT set to narrow the field to five finalists this Saturday at South by Southwest. The winner will be named in June.