Knight Autonomous
Vehicle Initiative

Cityfi provides program management, facilitation and technical advisory services for the Knight Autonomous Vehicle Initiative, a multi-year, grant-funded cohort of four cities (San Jose, CA; Detroit, MI; Miami, FL; and Pittsburgh, PA) implementing resident-centered community engagement strategies to better understand local mobility challenges, which can then be used to design autonomous vehicle (AV) pilots that respond to these needs.

Vision

By better understanding mobility challenges and perceptions of AVs, cities can be proactive in shaping what their future of mobility looks like, and ensure that the design and use of their streets is in service to promoting equitable, desired outcomes that respond to real community preferences. Learnings derived from the Initiative as well as outcomes of engagement-informed AV pilots will also provide more universal best practices for other cities in how they can proactively shape connected and equitable mobility networks, and how they can best work with the private sector to design use cases and mobility solutions that further the public good.

Method

Cityfi co-leads the Initiative’s framework, which guides the cities’ implementation of their resident-focused approach to community engagement and AV pilots. Cityfi also holds a regular cadence of communication and shared learning opportunities with the cohort through monthly and quarterly calls and biannual in-person meetings. These meetings are to problem-solve challenges; provide technical assistance on topics such as AVs, mobility, public-private partnerships, and human-centered design; and provide a forum for the cohort to share experiences and lessons learned. Cityfi also distills best practices from the Initiative’s learnings that can be shared with other cities as they consider how AV testing and deployment can best meet their residents’ needs and optimize an equitable transportation network. Recently, Cityfi contributed to the Urbanism Next study - A Framework for Shaping the Deployment of Autonomous Vehicles and Advancing Equity Outcomes - based on best practices and lessons learned from the Initiative.

As part of the project, Cityfi also convenes a private sector council, which is made up of industry representatives who offer their experience to guide cities in pilot implementation and working with private sector companies. These representatives also help to develop best practices for how the sectors can work together to both optimize business models and leverage cities’ policy and regulation levers to reach desirable outcomes for residents.

The Knight AV Initiative is currently in its second year of AV pilot deployments, community engagement efforts. Learnings from the Initiative thus far have been developed and are disseminated to appropriate audiences, including other cities, transportation officials, and the general public.