TennSMART Consortium formally announced with 20 founding members
A group of 20 public and private partners has launched the TennSMART Consortium to accelerate the development and deployment of intelligent mobility innovations in Tennessee.
The initiative, which has come together over the last year or so, draws on the state’s significant presence in automotive manufacturing, trucking and logistics, intelligent transportation R & D, and education.
Founding members include a number of Knoxville area organizations – DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee, GRIDSMART Technologies Inc., Local Motors, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee Valley Authority, and The University of Tennessee – and Top Five Inc., a Chattanooga area private equity firm.
Other participants include several big corporations (Bridgestone Americas, Cummins Filtration Inc., FedEx Corporation, Lyft, Miovision, Nissan North America, and Stantec Consulting Services Inc.), three state agencies (Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, and Tennessee Department of Transportation), and three other universities (Tennessee Tech University, University of Memphis, and Vanderbilt University).
Initially, the TennSMART Consortium has identified five intelligent mobility focus areas. They are connected and automated vehicles, heavy duty trucking and freight efficiency, cybersecurity, electric vehicles, and multimodal commuting.
To learn more about the new initiative, read yesterday’s news release. (TennSMART Press Release).
