Meet George Jetson

The future comes to Arlington with new self-driving car program

No driver required.

Photo courtesy of Drive.ai

The future is here in Arlington, Texas, which is launching a pilot program with self-driving cars.

According to a release, the City of Arlington approved a contract with Drive.ai, a California-based self-driving car company, for a one-year pilot program. They'll roll out a fleet of three self-driving three-passenger vans as a transportation option within the city's Entertainment District in October.

The punctuation-challenged Drive.ai was founded in 2015 by graduate students at Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Lab. The company has more than 150 employees, with locations in Mountain View and Frisco.

This marks Drive.ai’s second self-driving pilot program in the state of Texas; Frisco got them on July 30.

The vans will travel alongside other vehicles in a predetermined, geo-fenced area at speeds up to 35 miles per hour.

Safety operators will be onboard during the initial phase of the pilot program, which will be used for day-to-day mobility needs for residents as well as to help visitors get to and from remote parking lots to AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Park, and other venues.

The initial pilot will run for one year and include three vehicles. If mutually agreed upon by the City and Drive.ai, that could increase to five vehicles at a later date.

The program will be partially funded by a federal grant, with the remainder of funding coming from the City. The Drive.ai vans will be among the transportation technology showcased by cities from across the state during the three-day Texas Mobility Summit, which will be held in Arlington from October 28-30.

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University News

Univ of Texas at Arlington gets OK to proceed on west Fort Worth campus

Courtesy rendering

UTA West campus coming soon

A new university campus is in the works for west Fort Worth. According to a release, a proposal by the University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) to purchase 51 acres of property in west Fort Worth got the thumbs up from the University of Texas System Board of Regents, paving the way for UTA West, a new campus that would be built in the Walsh Ranch development.

Advantageously positioned at the intersection of I-30 and I-20 at the western gateway of Fort Worth, the new campus could begin welcoming students as early as fall 2028.

UTA West will be developed as part of a multiyear plan to serve more than 10,000 students.

“Anytime the UT System can expand greater educational opportunity, access, and affordability to Texans, we’re going to do it,” says UT System Board of Regents chairman Kevin Eltife in a satement. “We’ve recently done it in east Texas and south Texas and now we’re heading west. We’re looking forward to planting a UT Arlington flag in west Fort Worth, currently the nation’s fastest growing city.”

"The western part of the metroplex has an ever-growing population, a plethora of student talent, and a wide breadth of opportunity for explosive economic advancement. UTA has long been a top supplier of talent to companies across Fort Worth, and this expansion will allow UTA to broaden its impact across our region,” said UTA President Jennifer Cowley.

Walsh Ranch is the 7,200-acre development in west Fort Worth that calls itself "Fort Worth's next great neighborhood," being developed with neighborhoods, town centers, mixed-use areas, and commercial space.

And now a university campus.

UTA in Fort Worth
The new campus would be only the latest in a decades-long partnership between UTA and the city of Fort Worth. That includes the UTA Research Institute (UTARI), a facility established in east Fort Worth in 1986; and the UTA Fort Worth Center, a continuing education center for the downtown Fort Worth community established in 2007.

In 2023, the UTA Institute of Urban Studies, the principal research center for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Public Affairs, opened at UTA’s Fort Worth Center with a mission is to conduct research and provide technical assistance to city and county governments, governmental agencies, and nonprofit organizations, and to offer education and teaching opportunities to individuals either already in or contemplating public service careers.

The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive teaching, research, and public service institution with an enrollment of approximately 41,000 students, and is the second-largest institution in the UT System. In 2021, its combination of outstanding academics and innovative research contributed to its reaffirmation as a Carnegie R-1 “Very High Research Activity” institution, a significant milestone of excellence. The University is designated as a Hispanic Serving-Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education and in 2022 earned the Seal of Excelencia for its commitment to accelerating Latino student success.