Arkansas hopes to become a global leader in the future
of transportation corporations, private investors and the government are
coming together to bring next gen technology including flying cars
, driverless vehicles and drones to the Heartland, making
it no longer something that is exclusive or will be
exclusive to major cities. I spoke with governor,
the governor of Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson about this new
initiative. Just take a listen to what he had
to say. Whenever you think about the fact that
we have walmart, that's here, we've got J
. B. Hunt trucking, we've got logistics leaders
here in this state and they're all looking for better
ways to deliver products to be more efficient and protect
the supply chain. So it's a natural fit.
But I created the council and future mobility to look
at expanding drone delivery to be able to utilize autonomous
or driverless vehicles and delivery and then also to be
able to look at the future and whether you can
have driverless or flying cars that can be imagined.
And so this is about the future. And Arkansas
is a great leader in this already with companies from
canoe for, with electric vehicle manufacturing, R and
D. That's going to be located in Bentonville to
whenever you look at Gatwick that does the autonomous vehicles
, these are all companies that are operating that are
investing here in this state for the future of mobility
. You know, we've been hearing about the idea
of flying cars for decades, right? I think
back to the Jetsons, but even in reality,
you know, cos you know, potentially pursuing this
, but there are some people who have concerns here
, right, safety concerns among others. There is
a decent amount of hesitancy. I'm curious then,
why is Arkansas, you know, going full steam
ahead with this potentially risky technology? Well, you
have to bring the safety along with it and you
have to bring the public confidence in whatever mode of
transportation you have and that's the purpose of this council
and future mobility we have innovators, we've got the
investors, we've got technical experts as well as government
regulators that are involved in this council and there to
look at the future. What do we need to
do to make sure uh, the next innovation and
transportation is safe to make sure it's sustainable and make
sure that the public has confidence. And so this
is a step by step process. But the fact
that we are already utilizing a pilot programs in autonomous
vehicles in Arkansas, we've got drone delivery that's being
utilized and these are expanding right now and to bring
the public's confidence along, we want this council to
be able to assure that we're taking the safety measures
that are needed and that they have confidence in the
steps that are taken and we're a ways away of
course from flying cars who we are having the up
summit uh, this summer in Bentonville that's gonna look
at those areas of innovation, how far away they
are, how we can bring them along and bring
the public along in terms of confidence here we understand
one goal of this campaign is to bring kind of
next generation tech to the Heartland and really outside of
some of the major cities. I'm curious though,
how can you be sure there is really an appetite
for things like electric cars, autonomous trucks, specifically
in a state like yours? Well, let's talk
about electric cars to begin with and there is a
demand, but right now we don't have the electric
charging stations where it can be used across the state
. We are a rural state and so we have
$54 million dollars of federal money that's coming in that
we can invest in those electric charging stations. So
that's the first step in terms of the autonomous vehicles
that's really important. And so right now it's used
for delivery and so from the warehouse to the retail
store, it's a defined route that we have gathered
that is utilizing their driverless vehicles for that delivery.
It took legislation that would allow that pilot program.
The general assembly supported that and so don't underestimate one
the need for it in Arkansas, but also the
acceptance of it and how we can lead, were
actually leading in computer science education where it's required now
to graduate from high school that you have of course
in computer science and it's creating a greater talent pool
to develop the software, the safety protocols for this
type of innovation in transportation. How soon do you
expect that this dream to become a reality? And
what steps are you taking to get there? Well
, this council is one of the first steps that
we're taking, but it it's always private sector driven
with the safety protocols assured by the public governing entities
. And so those are the steps that we're taking
now, bringing those people together. But it's up
to the private sector as to how quickly they can
bring the technologies to bear. And how also quickly
we can give the public confidence that this is going
to make their lives better. It's going to make
their lives a quality of life improved, uh and
more efficient. And so those are the challenges that
we face. But if we don't take that first
step forward, uh then it's never going to become
a reality. But also we're gonna conceived all of
this territory of innovation to other global markets. It's
happening across the globe, but there's not any reason
it can't happen in Arkansas and in the United States
, and it is happening here, and that was
Governor of Arkansas. Asa Hutchinson's