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Grayson Brulte:
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Hello, I'm your host, Grayson Brulte. Welcome to another episode of SAE Tomorrow Today, a show about emerging technology and trends and mobility with leaders and innovators who make it all happen. On today's episode, we're absolutely honored to be joined by Kathy Winter, Chief Operating Officer at May Mobility, and Thomas Johnson-Kaiser, CAV-X Engagement and Project Manager, Minnesota DOT.
On this episode, they will discuss the goMARTI project and the societal impact of using autonomous vehicles for public transportation. We hope you enjoy this episode.
Welcome to podcast.
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Thanks for having us.
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Kathy Winter:
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Thank you. Great to be here.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Excited to have you here because what May and Minnesota Department of Transportation doing is special. May is scaling and creating value in Minnesota and Minnesota Department of Transportation is offering really wonderful support, and it's a great example of a public private partnership that's excelling and doing great things for the residents of Minnesota.
Kathy, you have a long-standing background of doing great things at Intel. When I saw the announcement, I said, oh, wow, May's up to something because in November 2022, you joined as Chief Operating Officer. Why?
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Kathy Winter:
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Grayson, that's a great question, and I'm getting that a lot from family, friends and everyone.
And, I have to tell you I've always been a big company person my whole career. And when I looked at May, they're doing something I'm really passionate about. I've been involved with automated driving and ADAS and automotive for too many years to even say, and I love that space. But when I looked at May and their mission, to make transportation more accessible, safe, it just available to everyone inclusive.
It just felt like something I was really passionate about and I love the ADAS space. I love the automated driving, autonomous driving space, so this is just the perfect chance to help me build on everything they've already done. They've done great work, fantastic groundwork there, and hopefully I can help 'em accelerate to scale that across the whole world.
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Grayson Brulte:
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There's no doubt in my mind you can help them accelerate. I wanna highlight May is a great culture. You have Edwin on the team. You have Kurtis Hodge who recently joined you as well. There's a really great culture of individuals who want to solve really big problems, and plus you have the wonderful backing of the Toyota Company.
Kathy you said you're a big company person. We've met when you were at Intel and you were doing big things there. You're in the COO role now, are you gonna take all that experience from Intel and big company world and help me scale throughout the country?
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Kathy Winter:
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That's the plan, but before I was at Intel, I was also at Delphi. I got to get a lot of great hands-on experience with the very first autonomous driving vehicles there and then building on. From a tier one experience to go to Intel, which was tier two, but working really closely with all the big players out in the industry. Fantastic work by the teams there.
And yes, I hope to take everything that I've learned and like I said, the team has laid great groundwork and now how do we really take it big time and get into all these different communities and really make a difference.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Thomas, one of those communities is in your home state, Minnesota. It's in Grand Rapids. What are your thoughts on May operating in a rural part of the state through the goMARTI program? I wanna highlight to our listeners, it's in the northern part of the state. It's not in the Twin Cities. It's a rural community, roughly 10,000 individuals that live there and call at home. What are your thoughts?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, we're really excited to have May Mobility and the goMARTI project in Grand Rapids and in greater Minnesota. In rural Minnesota there in Grand Rapids. This is actually our third automated show project we have at MnDOT the first one was in Rochester, Minnesota in downtown Rochester.
So more of an urban setting. We have one currently in White Bear Lake, which is a suburb of the Twin Cities. That's more of a suburban setting. And so now we have this one in Grand Rapids in a rural setting, so we're really excited to be bringing this automated vehicle technology to a variety of areas throughout the state, all that urban, suburban, and rural and testing different technology in all three of those projects. So very excited to have goMARTI in Grand Rapids.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Rochester's home to the world-famous Mayo Clinic. Is that where these autonomous vehicles were running?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, there was two stops in that project in downtown Rochester, and one of them was right outside one of the Mayo Clinic buildings.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Beautiful, three projects. You have Rochester, you have White Bear Lake, and now you have Grand Rapids. Where is the drive and desire coming from? From MnDOT to say, yes, we want autonomous vehicles. Yes, we want them in our state. Where does that drive and desire come from?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah we really see that there's a lot of potential benefit to connected automated vehicles for Minnesotans, and so we're wanting to be testing that technology.
To be ensuring that the technology is rolled out safely with equity in mind, and that we're gaining that feedback from the Minnesotans on what they think this technology could be used for. So we've seen a great way to get that feedback and help educate folks on a technology as these demonstration projects when people can experience the technology themselves, ride in a vehicle, be providing us feedback, letting us know what they think this technology could be used for, has been really beneficial. So that's what we're trying to get this technology out to Minnesotans and have them in all those different areas and try and reach as many communities as possible to have us provide that feedback on the technology.
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Grayson Brulte:
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One of the coolest things you did in Minnesota at the Super Bowl one year you had an autonomous vehicle operate the Super Bowl. So you wanna talk about a really great way to build experience. That's the Super Bowl. But I want to get back into to Grand Rapids here because I think it's really fascinating. It's having a positive impact on the residents' lives that live in Grand Rapids. For our listeners are curious, Thomas, what is the goMARTI program?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, so the goMARTI program is a really community-driven 18 month project right now, and MARTI of the goMARTI stands for Minnesota's Autonomous Rural Transit Initiative, and so it was deployed in October of 2022, so it'll run through March of 2024.
We have five main mobility vehicles, and I'll let Kathy dive into the details on the technology there. But three of those vehicles are fully accessible for folks and they cover about 17 square miles in the city of Grand Rapids. And we have about 70 stops so people can request a ride using the May Mobility app or calling into a local call center. And so it's point to point on demand. So people once they request a ride, let them know where that closest pickup point is. Of those 70 stops, they'll say where they want to go. It'll drop them off at that closest drop off point. So it's really great. It's been operating for a few months now.
It's six days a week, it's free to ride. And then we have a few goals that we're really trying to accomplish with this project. The first is really advancing this automated vehicle technology in rural winter conditions. As we mentioned, this is really large and one of our first rural deployments of automated vehicle technology.
So we wanna see how this technology works in a rural sane and in Northern Minnesota we get quite the winter conditions. So it's a great way. The technology in those harsh Minnesota winters as well. We're also wanting to engage and educate the local community on this technology by pro, by providing them that real world experience of utilizing these vehicles.
So we want that two-way communication. So not only are we educating folks, On the potential benefits of this technology, but also hearing from the community and what they may think this technology could be used to help solve some of those transportation challenges that they currently have. We're wanting to provide that safe, accessible transportation options for folks, especially those with mobility challenges.
So that's why we really are excited to have those three fully-accessible vehicles. Being able to complement the existing transportation that's in Grand Rapids to provide some more transportation options. And lastly, we're wanting to understand what the economic development impacts of bringing this really innovative project to rural town of Grand Rapids maybe.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Kathy, 17 square miles 70 stops, five fully autonomous vehicles in snow, not the nicest conditions. In a desert, that's a challenging O D, that's an aggressive rollout. Why go so big in a very snowy conditions that's not very nice to autonomous vehicles yet.
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Kathy Winter:
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The good news for Grand Rapids is it's not like that year-round there's eventually there'll be some nice weather, but actually you, you actually hit the point right on. We actually need the learning as well. So when we look at our deployments, we have different locations. We have Arlington, Texas, for example, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rainy, gets snow. Grand Rapids it's a great learning place for us as well. As we test out the sensor suites and the performance of the vehicles in these kinds of conditions, you really can't think about going on a broader scale throughout the US or in other countries if you can't manage weather.
So we have a safety driver in there today. The vehicles are constantly taking tons and tons of data in as we find the performance and new situations. It's very valuable for us as well to be up in those kinds of conditions.
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Grayson Brulte:
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What was it like when you first went into to Grand Rapids and you got the weather report, we've got a snowstorm coming, was it Yes, we can learn something or what was that experience like Kathy, with the May team, okay, game on.
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Kathy Winter:
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Game on. Yeah, absolutely. We're very purposeful in where we go, get the right partners like MnDOT and the Itasca County for example. Get the right partners in the right community outreach cuz that's what's gonna make it all successful and meaningful, but also, The learning behind the technology, right?
I think we're advancing the technology very quickly. We have a really good eye on getting a driver out by the end of this year, but we also need to learn all the different use cases and make sure we're ready for all conditions.
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Grayson Brulte:
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What did you have to do from a hardware perspective for the vehicle? I grew up in Connecticut and the salt would get under the car and you had to go to the car wash cause the salt would rot the bottom of your car.
You had to put go from summer tires to snow tires. Did you have to go through all these traditional things of traditional human would go through for the vehicle?
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Kathy Winter:
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Okay, so our Sienna vehicle it's a Toyota especially made for us autonomous Sienna, but so that we can outfit it with all the ADK advanced driving sensors, software, et cetera. So the vehicle itself does go through typical maintenance, right? You've got wheels and undercarriage, et cetera. So there is a part of keeping this fleet going that is traditional maintenance. As far as the sensors go, yes, it's true. So you've got salt, and if you think of the sensors as the eyes and the ears of the vehicle, and you think of the central compute as the brains, where am I going?
What's my path planning, policy, decision making, those sensors. You do have to be careful because it's a mix of vision and then lidar and radar. And so radar doesn't really care. It's behind a panel, but you think of the cameras, for example, if they get crusted in salt. Part of what our team's doing today is looking at potential technologies to actually clean those sensors real time.
Should they appear to be occluded or you know, covered in something. Looking at different ways to do that. You can imagine blowing air on them. If you throw water on and it's freezing, that's probably not the best way. So you have to come up with some good high tech solution to this. But the team's in the middle doing that right now. And that's some of the learning, like I said, we get by going into these conditions.
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Grayson Brulte:
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And that's what will give May a competitive advantage as you scale into other markets, you're battle tested. You've been through the snowy conditions. Thomas, what support is MnDOT giving me as they're operating in these snowy conditions?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, so we really are the project sponsor for this project. Working closely with all the project partners of May Mobility and the city of Grand Rapids and all the other great partners we have on this project. So we're really helping with that community engagement. We're helping provide some of that guidance and direction.
Some of our lessons learned from our previous autonomous vehicle projects that we have and they did operate in the winter in those as well. So we have some experience with autonomous vehicles in winter at MnDOT. So we're helping with those lessons learned, helping with determining what data needs to be collected and making sure that we're providing those safe, accessible transportation options for folks.
So we're really just there to, to support, to guide, and to help all of our great project partners make this be a really successful project for Grand Rapids in the community.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Did you have to upgrade any of the infrastructure prior to May operating in Grand Rapids?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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All the vehicles operate mostly on city and county roads my knowledge is the city of Grand Rapids and Itasca County, did not need to make any infrastructure upgrades for the May mobility vehicles to operate. We did work with the city to install signs at all 70 of those locations. So we did add some signage for folks to know where the vehicles would pick them up or drop them off. And then one cool project that we worked on was with the local high school students, where they created some structures that were placed along some sections of the route to help with localizations.
So in a rural community, there's less permanent fixed structures that the vehicle can use to help with localization. So we worked with the local high school, great to get them involved in this project, and they created some structures that were then placed along the route.
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Grayson Brulte:
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It's beautiful. You're engaging the local community. And Kathy, as I said earlier, Grand Rapids community of roughly 10,000 individuals living there. The amazing part is you've been operating there for roughly four months. You've gain over 1200 rides. Repeat 1200 rides for a community of 10,000 residents. That's off the charts. What do you equate this overwhelming demand to?
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Kathy Winter:
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It's a really good state, right? In four months, I think it's actually 1500, but I have to double check that. But in four months, a crazy amount of rides and 80 plus percent are repeat riders. And that's what we love to see because you're not just having the person come out and try it out once we're actually getting repeat riders.
And I think the unique thing, and I dunno how this is at your other projects, one of the unique things is almost 25% of those rides were wheelchair accessible rides, which is hitting that unique spot that I think we can bring to the communities. The ridership and the embracing of the community sends a lot of data for us as well as to what's meaningful, right and what's sticky for riders there. You know what I think, if you think about this is a way for someone who's transportation challenged, whether they're elderly or wheelchair ridden, or just don't drive, don't wanna own a car to get to their church, to get to school, to get to the grocery store doctor's office.
So you can see why if they had a successful ride, they can use a phone number too. They don't even have to deal with the app. If it's someone not smartphone friendly, they can use a phone number, which I think is important too, to take down that barrier of having to be tech savvy. And yet they still embrace the vehicle, which is great because it means their experience, it's not scary to them, it's not off putting. They're jumping right back in. We love to see that. Maybe Grayson I can mention one other thing, just to tie back to when you said what's gonna help us scale the high school project with the localization, the community engagement's huge, but from a technology perspective as well, we do have something unique in how we make decisions, how this vehicle drives, and it's important in this bad climate, it's called multi policy decision making and PDM.
But what's critical is when you think about these difficult scenarios, it's basically simulating thousands of possible outcomes or futures in, in, in a second, right? And it's looking at the high risk and it's looking at the most probable. And so when you think of maneuvering, it's not just those sensors and keeping 'em clean, but there is, we didn't really talk about the brains of the vehicle.
And that type of decision making and path finding allows us to deal with the most complex, whether it's rural with a lot of pedestrians like in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When the students all pass between classes, it's a whole different game than when you talk about students building infrastructure, which helps us localize. It's great. You're on two opposite spectrums, so anyway, I just wanted to throw that in.
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Grayson Brulte:
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What is great about it, you're bringing the local community together and they're part of it. Mom, look what I built. I was I did that and we're helping this technology. You're rolling up your. There's been a very common theme, Kathy, throughout this podcast, accessibility, several of your peers in the autonomous vehicle industry, don't focus on accessibility.
In the Grand Rapids project, you have three fully accessible autonomous vehicles, three outta five. That's a very healthy margin with 25% of the rides being wheelchair accessible. Why has May, may made such a large commitment to accessibility? Will some of your peers have I'll use the word, overlooked it?
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Kathy Winter:
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First off, I can say part of me joining May was Ed and the team there, and the culture, right? It's part of the culture of people wanting to be in high tech, but how do we make it meaningful and change lives with tech, right? With AI, with autonomous, things like that. It's a way to be involved in the kind of things we like, but also make a difference.
And I think for us, we do put accessibility first when we think about these vehicles. Part of why we moved to the Sienna van was because it did accommodate a wheelchair. And we had Lexus before, which drove, that wasn't really the issue. But these vans, and when we think about our future vehicles, we always want to have accessible vehicles. And we do today in our fleets. At least one depends on the community, but we do strive to that to be a part of it. That's how you make it accessible, equitable to those populations that are underserved today, yet keep it safe. And we like the sustainability aspects too. So we're striving towards that.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Thomas, when you put together the commitment to accessibility, the overwhelming demand that you're seeing in Grand Rapids, as you plan in Minnesota DOT, are you looking at potentially deploying in other rural communities because of success that you're having in Grand Rapids?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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So at this point, we don't have any plans for additional pilot projects throughout the state. I know there has been some interest throughout the state for some additional pilot programs mean that has not been approached directly for any of programs yet. I know that there were some federal grant proposals that were put in as part of the IIJA bill in late 2022, that folks are still waiting to hear the results of that including to expand goMARTI. MnDOT isn't the lead agency on any of those applications. We did support a few of those proposals, including the potential expansion of goMARTI. So we're still to be determined on what the future holds for more deployments, but at this point we don't have any that are directly planned for MnDOT.
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Grayson Brulte:
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It's to be determined. The common numbers are getting really great feedback from the community. You're doing a really great service in the community. What type of feedback has MnDOT gotten from the community and the service?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, so we have a pre and post ride survey that we encourage all of our riders to fill out to, to get that feedback.
So far we've really gotten positive feedback. We have about 4.9 out of five our rating thus far on, on our rides. But it's important to know that this is a pilot project and we're still, early on in the project. So that total feedback is to be determined. Only less than six months into the project. So that's really what we're wanting to continue to get more riders, continue to get that feedback, cuz that's a huge goal of this project is to really understand what that demand is, what folks in a rural community think of this technology. So we have some really exciting community engagement plans coming up in the spring and summer for local events to continue to get the word out on goMARTI and get that directly from the community. So far it's been good, but we're continuing to wind to, to get more feedback from the community.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Feedback is great cuz you can, I, you can improve the experience. You can, improve the product and I'm very happy to hear that. There's a dial ride. When I was in Beverly Hills and there was a lot of individuals that couldn't, elderly didn't understand how to use a smartphone, so we had to do a dial-a-ride, and it made a really big difference for them. Kathy we talked earlier about May likes to deploy in different weather environments, different ODDs. If you're looking to, as you did in Grand Rapids, deploy in a snowy environment, why focus on a rural community, not a major metropolitan city, such as the Twin Cities of Minnesota and St. Paul?
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Kathy Winter:
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First, it's not a technology issue at all. The technology is progressing. Like I said we're aiming to have a driver out, we're allowed because there's a lot of things that gate. completely taken driver out, right? Part of it is regulatory state by state. What's the policies, insurance, things like that.
But from a technology perspective, the technology is very broad and can carry across, not only into autonomous cars or vans, but also it could eventually be in trucks. Delivery type vehicles, things like that. So as we think about and develop the technology, that's certainly a plan that it can go a lot of other places.
But back to the urban versus rural, from an urban perspective, there are a lot of people, there's a lot of availability for Uber types and taxis and large transit systems. And so the need, what we think we do is really compliment the fixed systems that are there today. Whether it's large city or complimenting what's in Grand Rapids.
So if you look at what's our market play and what makes sense for May and where can we really win, it really makes sense for us to go to those underserved areas. And like I said, where we can complement something that's already in place. If you've already blanketed a big city with tons of transportation options, then people have a lot of choice already today.
So we're really targeting to go where, and it could be on the fringes of large. So I'm not gonna say we wouldn't be in San Francisco, but you might be on the fringes where there's that, how do I get to the mass transit system, just as an example, right? So that's the kinds of things we're looking at. So it is a mix of variety of places, but the rural’s an easy one to say this makes sense. So we'll be looking at all of it. And going where it makes no sense when we can add the highest value.
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Grayson Brulte:
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You're adding a lot of value in, in Grand Rapids today, Thomas, prior to May deploying Grand Rapids, what was the transportation network like there? Was it hard for individuals to get around? Were they just limited options? What was there before May went?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, so there is some existing transit options in the city of Grand Rapids with Arrowhead Transit. So we are really trying to compliment, like Kathy was saying, The existing transportation. So we currently operate with goMARTI from two to 10:00 PM Monday through, or Tuesday through Friday, Saturday, 10:00 AM to 10:00 PM and Sunday, 8:00 AM to 2:00 PM So we are looking to compliment that existing transit.
So there was some transit, but definitely some limitations there for folks and then, they don't have, they have some, taxi services and things like that, but they don't have Uber, they don't have Lyfts. Some of that on demand options that folks have may maybe in larger cities.
So this was a great opportunity to provide those additional transportation folks while also complimenting that existing transportation options folks have.
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Grayson Brulte:
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And Kathy, as May operates as a point to point. I'm a resident of Grand Rapids. I down, I download the app or I dial for a ride. Can you walk us through what the May experience is like and what image you can expect when they're riding in one of your vehicles? Going from point A to point B.
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Kathy Winter:
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Basically, they can call up the app either or on the phone and they call. And our goal is to be, within five to seven minutes of them waiting for a ride. And so we try to gauge the number of vehicles we need at any particular location because you don't wanna have long wait time.
So we wanna make sure we're providing the capacity that it becomes discouraging if you have to wait too long. So that's our goal, is to provide the right capacity. So they basically get in the vehicle today, we still have. We call 'em an AVO, the autonomous vehicle operator in the car, just in case of the off chance that there is some reason they might need to take over.
But again, that's our goal and we track that interventions to drive that down to, as close to zero as possible. And then, yeah it's very, Unexciting, which is good, right? And so you ride to your sock and off your hop. Now it's a little bit different for the wheelchair person. So if someone has a wheelchair, the AVO today, we have a big ramp that will come down that is ADA compliant.
And we also have a secondary ramp in case it's needed for a curb. And so the AVO today will help them get into the vehicle and secure the wheelchair and they can bring with them, they can either bring a service animal or two other passengers can ride in the Sienna. So that's nice because if they have someone traveling with them to the doctor's office or to the grocery store, et cetera there's room in the vehicle.
Anyway, it's a very safe ride. And then we help. Get back off again. And, we're looking at different technologies that at some point to automate that, but it's a little bit further down the road when you think about really needing to secure the wheelchairs. But that's okay. It still could be driving in an autonomous mode.
You just may have someone there who's just someone providing a service and just helping them on and off. So that's how it works today.
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Grayson Brulte:
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You've clearly designed and manufactured the Sienna autonomous vehicles for accessibility. How did you do that from a development standpoint? Did you have to tear the van down and run all these different scenarios and different curb heights? How did you build it?
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Kathy Winter:
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For the wheelchair accessibility? So BraunAbility is our partner, and they're very experienced in this space. They have a ton of data, a lot of experience. They've helped us modify these to meet the compliance for ADA. So that secondary ramp is really what helps because it just comes out and you can set it in, independent on the curb and then get 'em to the street and then right up into the back of the van.
I've done it myself. It's actually, I can pull that ramp down and I could help someone now that I've tried it out myself and it works.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Did you get any support from Toyota as you work with BraunAbility? Did Toyota offer any support from an engineering perspective, or what would work best on the vans?
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Kathy Winter:
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Toyota just in general, is a strong partner of ours as far as integrating and understanding the Sienna and outfitting it so that it's ADA or autonomous ready for us to implement the additional piece that makes it autonomous basically. Toyota is a key partner from a technology perspective of a BraunAbility, then focused primarily on the ADA wheelchair ramp.
I will tell you, we did have to partner with Toyota though, because when we went to the van, we actually had to. Where we had originally put some of the sensors on the rear needed to be moved to accommodate the wheelchair ramp. So we did have to make some accommodations. And of course, like I said, Toyota's always involved.
And together we make sure that we have a safe product that's out there.
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Grayson Brulte:
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You're clearly thinking this through. And Thomas, we've heard throughout this podcast, goMARTI's been in my words, in overwhelming. What happens when the program ends, you're try and get federal funds to continue and eventually expand it, but what happens?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, so like I said before, right now we have funding through a 18 month project, but there was a federal grant that was applied for, to continue beyond that. So still to be determined. On that funding. Yeah, so that's where mint's participation with the funding will end at the 18 months.
But we're excited to see what comes of it. And that's what we're really trying to continue to learn is what is that interest? What is that demand? What is those use cases for the community? So we're going to get that community feedback to really learn what they think of this. And if it could be something that the community is interested in long term.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Thomas, let's go into the future here. MnDOT has a strong record of embracing autonomy and deploying it for meaningful value for the residents of the state of Minnesota. In your opinion, what is the future of autonomous vehicles in Minnesota?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah, so we see a lot of potential benefit with autonomous vehicles.
So we're continuing to plan and prepare for that future of transportation and wanting to help ensure these benefits are realized for all Minnesotans. So to do that, we're continuing to test the technology in different communities in throughout the state and wanting to, really get that feedback from Minnesotans on what they think this technology could best be used for, and wanting to get that from our vary communities throughout Minnesota, so we're always wanting to keep equity in mind with the future of autonomous vehicles. The second thing I'll say is the future is here, so we have. A lot of, level one, level two vehicles on Minnesota roads today. So that technology is only gonna continue to grow and see additional uses of connected automated vehicle technology with things like truck platooning or using the cab technology on our maintenance vehicles.
So we're gonna see this technology use expand, and with that current technology, we're really wanting to see. That can continue to be more accessible for more Minnesotans and more equitable for folks. And with that higher level of automation with projects like goMARTI, the main challenge that we've seen has been moving from that pilot phase to that long-term deployment.
So that's why projects like goMARTI are great to really help us learn what needs to happen to potentially move to that long-term deployment. And lastly, there are things that MnDOT and other local agencies can do to help push and advance autonomous vehicle technology. But there's always gonna be some of those gaps that we know, can't be done.
So to help us realize the benefits of autonomous vehicle technology. So the technology's only gonna be as good as the infrastructure we can provide to support it. So we're willing to continue to work with great technology providers like May Mobility to really understand what is needed for autonomous vehicle technology. So how we can continue to advance and safely have this technology on the roads.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Kathy Thomas said it beautifully. The future is here. Yes, the future is here. May is operating in multiple states. You're creating value for residents and individuals all across the United States. You're in this new role, you're gonna kick some serious butt.
What is the future of May Mobility?
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Kathy Winter:
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Yeah, I think Thomas said it is here today, and I think, the big thing now is how do we go big and how do we scale it? We've actually got some operations going in Japan. We have new locations that'll come online that I can't really say what they are.
But of course Japan because of working with Toyota. So we are starting on a, to get on a global basis. I think, maybe the biggest thing for me to say is, the possibilities are endless. I think, making transportation sustainable, thinking about safety always first, accessibility, equitable, accessible, things like that really are meaningful to our communities.
And so I think me's got the te. I think we're moving fast, but at a safe pace and we're gonna have a great next couple of years as we scale. We've got great partners. We just announced a partnership with Via, who is a leader in Tech transit. And so they actually are the back end to our May Mobility app.
And so partnering with them, we plan to put thousands of vehicles out because they've got a great network out there today. So it's just an example of finding the right partners to help scale and taking what we think is superior technology that'll allow us to do that. Partnering with communities like Grand Rapids and the community outreach is just, it's such a fun, cool space to be in.
I think we got a great team at May and Ed's done a great job of bringing it to where it is today, and I hope to help him take it even further with the rest of the group.
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Grayson Brulte:
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There's no doubt May is scaling, Minnesota's open for autonomous vehicle business. And Kathy, as you'd like to wrap up this insightful conversation, what would you like the listeners to take away with them today?
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Kathy Winter:
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I would say take away, embrace autonomous vehicles. It's gonna change people's lives. They're safer and they're gonna allow more people to get on the roads and get where they need to be. And embracing the technology, I think everybody's tried out. You'll like it, you'll think it's great. And you, if you think about it, put it in the context of how well do your elderly parents drive like mine or shouldn't be driving.
And how do those teens drive? And how about the people? Don't even have someone to drive them or ride. So if you put in that context, I would encourage listeners to get out there and try one in some of these areas where it's located and embrace the technology. It is the future and it's here now, so take advantage of it.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Autonomy is the future. A hundred percent spot on. Thomas, what would you like the listeners take away with them today?
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Yeah. I think want listeners to take away that there's a lot of exciting things happening with CAV in Minnesota and throughout the country. Folks should check out our website, goMARTI.com to learn more about the project and come to Grand Rapids and take a ride on goMARTI Shuttle.
We're really wanting to learn as much as possible from this exciting project. And continue to collaborate with great partners throughout Minnesota and throughout the country to help prepare Minnesota for this future of transportation and really ensure the benefits of the technology are realized for all Minnesotans.
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Grayson Brulte:
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The future is here. I encourage listeners, as Thomas said, go to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, take a ride in a May Mobility vehicle. It'll be a great experience. Today is tomorrow. Tomorrow's today. The future is goMARTI.
Kathy, Thomas, thank you so much for coming on SAE Tomorrow Today.
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Thomas Johnson-Kaiser:
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Thanks for having us.
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Kathy Winter:
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Thanks. It was fun.
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Grayson Brulte:
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Thank you for listening to SAE Tomorrow Today. If you've enjoyed this episode and would like to hear more, please kindly rate review and let us know what topics you'd like for us to explore next.
Be sure to join us next week as we continue the goMARTI conversation and dive into the rider and community experience.
SAE International makes no representations as to the accuracy of the information presented in this podcast. The information and opinions are for general information only. SAE International does not endorse, approve, recommend, or certify any information, product, process, service, or organization presented or mentioned in this podcast.
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