Mobility & Economic Development | iDSC061

Mobility & Economic Development - Robotic Parcel Delivery, EVs & Infrastructure If you live in Southern California you have much to brag about when it comes to the advantages our region has to offer.  However, traffic congestion is definitely not one of them.  By (far too) many measures, SoCal delivers the worst traffic on planet earth.  And one of the lead organizations in addressing the issue is the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation.  We sat down with the non-profit’s head of Aerospace & Advanced Transportation, Judy Kruger, to discuss the economic portion of the mobility equation here in Los Angeles County and its surrounding area of influence.  Find out how autonomous parcel delivery will play a role in alleviating traffic in this iDriveSoCal Podcast. ***Transcript*** Recording date – April 17, 2018 in Los Angeles, CA Judy Kruger: whether they have a new technology that will go on a cube satellite or a flying car or a new data collecting technology for vehicles. It's just all converging, whether it's aerospace or advanced transportation, all the platforms that are around it. We've got the perfect setting with our 11 million people in one small, tight spot. Tom Smith: Driving each other nuts on the 405. Judy Kruger: Exactly. We've got the right setting to move this technology forward, and it's going to be very exciting to see it. Tom Smith: Welcome to iDriveSoCal, the podcast all about mobility from the automotive capital of the United States, Southern California. I'm Tom Smith, and today I'm downtown Los Angeles at the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. Joining me is the director of the industry cluster development ... long title here ... of aerospace and advanced transportation. Judy Kruger is with me. Judy, thank you for joining me. Judy Kruger: Thank you, Tom. It's a pleasure to be here. Tom Smith: Judy is in charge of basically the portion of the LA County Economic Development Corporation that we here at iDriveSoCal, in our mobility interest ... Judy's in charge of that whole space. Anything that has to do with mobility, transportation, as it pertains to the county of Los Angeles, which I'd imagine also impacts greater than just the county of Los Angeles, Judy's in charge of that development. Very excited to be sitting with you, Judy. Tell us a little bit about just high-level what your organization does, and what you do within it. Judy Kruger: Certainly. At the LAEDC, we are focused on driving growth with these industry clusters. Advanced transportation could be, as you know, anything related to mobility, electric, autonomous, infrastructure, charging stations, alternative fuels, design studios. What we're trying to do with our industries is grow them organically, and grow them in innovation. Tom Smith: It's a little bit of everything, and with that in mind I'd kind of like to focus on maybe the top kind of three-ish things, if we can right now, that you have on your plate. Judy Kruger: If I were to pick the top three, what's unique to Southern California in addition to our innovative culture is, Southern California by policy and environment was way ahead of the game in electric vehicles. Some of the spinoff of that is, unlike any other place in the US, we have six bus manufacturers in LA County. Actually, eight bus manufacturers in the region, electric bus manufacturers. Judy Kruger: We are targeting assisting that industry grow, because it has a ripple effect to driving growth with an industry like that, that will additionally play into autonomous. That's our second area. We're looking at, how can we add urban planning to industry planning, and where can we help roll out projects on the autonomous side? Judy Kruger: Then thirdly, we're helping with infrastructure and charging st...