What if LA's sprawl is its saving grace?
(5min read) And China builds trains as fast as planes.
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This week, our own John Rossant and urban planning scholar Carlo Ratti ask a provocative question in the pages of the Los Angeles Times: What if the City of Angels is actually well-designed for a sustainable energy and mobility future?
That’s not to say California doesn’t have a lot of work to do. While China is building trains that travel nearly as fast as planes, it’s taking California a quarter century to build a rail line that will travel less than half that fast.
Meanwhile, the past week has featured a number of important pivots and innovations. Tesla ditches its hyped Dojo supercomputer after much of the talent left to launch their own AI startup, Lyft is partnering with Baidu to put robotaxis on German and U.K. streets, Joby is teaming with Japanese airline ANA to get electric air taxis buzzing over Tokyo and Chinese tech giant Alibaba rolls out the first “AI-native” mapping app.
What you need to know
China’s super fast, super quiet trains: Not only does it appear that China has developed maglev trains that will travel up to 370 mph, but they’ve figured out how to silence the resulting “tunnel booms” that were long viewed as a barrier to widespread adoption. Researchers have figured out that putting soundproofing buffers at the mouths of tunnels can reduce the shock waves by 96%. Though no formal routes have been planned, it is widely expected that one will eventually connect Beijing and Shanghai, reducing the travel time from 4.5 hours to 2.5 hours –– comparable to a flight but without all the hassle and waiting that air travel requires. Meanwhile, America still doesn’t have any trains that are even half that fast.
Bill would bar U.S. government from using Chinese LiDAR: A bill introduced by Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., would prohibit the U.S. Department of Transportation from using LiDAR technology manufactured by Chinese companies. Johnson says he seeks to prevent China from being able to map critical infrastructure, such as ports, airports, roads and bridges.
Canada’s first battery bendy bus: Winnipeg is the first city in Canada to roll out articulated 60-foot battery-electric buses, colloquially termed “bendy buses.”
The first AI-native mapping app: Chinese tech giant Alibaba releases what it describes as the world’s first AI-native navigation app. The app features an AI voice assistant that can suggest destinations, make travel plans, book reservations and adjust the itinerary in response to traffic and weather. Your move, Google.
Ex-Tesla execs found AI company: Roughly 20 people who were working on Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer project have started their own artificial intelligence company, DensityAI. The group hopes to soon raise hundreds of millions of dollars to develop chips and software to power AI data centers for robotics and “automotive applications,” according to Bloomberg.
…and Tesla ditches Dojo: After losing much of the talent behind the project, Tesla abandons the supercomputer and chip-making effort that Elon Musk once described as key to the automaker’s self-driving ambitions. Now the company is touting Cortex, a “giant new AI training supercluster” being developed at its headquarters in Austin, where the company is also testing out its robotaxi fleet.
Lyft and Baidu target Europe: Lyft announces that it will aim to deploy robotaxis made by Chinese tech titan Baidu in Germany and the U.K. in 2026. Until recently, Lyft only operated in the U.S. and Canada, but earlier this year it got involved in the European market by acquiring German multi-mobility app FREENOW. Like rival Uber, Lyft abandoned its own efforts to develop autonomous vehicles in-house, but it is similarly eager to partner with AV companies.
Cambridge yields to the speed hump: After long resisting speed bumps in favor of more costly and time-consuming street-calming strategies, Cambridge, Mass., the home of Harvard University, will launch a “speed hump bonanza,” says transportation writer David Zipper. It is part of a shift towards low-cost, quick interventions to slow down cars.
Joby and ANA plan air taxis in Japan: Joby Aviation, the Santa Cruz eVTOL startup, partners with Japanese airline ANA to launch electric air taxis in Japan as early as 2027, initially between Tokyo’s two main airports. An ANA spokesperson says the airline hopes to make rides on Joby’s five-seat aircraft as “affordable as possible” to make it accessible to the general public.
‘Trackless tram’ sounds better: Maryam Nawaz, the chief minister of the Pakistani province of Punjab, proudly posts a video of herself riding what she describes as “South Asia’s first ever trackless tram.” A lot of people online, however, say it’s just a bus. We say it should be called whatever will make more people ride it.
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What we’re reading
Is Los Angeles actually well-designed? In the Los Angeles Times, CoMotion’s very own John Rossant and Carlo Ratti, director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, argue that the things about Los Angeles that urban planners typically detest –– the sprawl, the gargantuan parking lots –– may prove to be assets in the next era of mobility and energy.
To wit: “Technologies like rooftop photovoltaics, vehicle-to-grid systems and AI-optimized resource flows do not depend on compactness. They benefit from space, sunlight and flexibility — qualities that Los Angeles has in abundance across its 1,600 square miles of urbanized area.”
CoMotion's mobility goodness brought to you by:
Jack Craver,
Editor, CoMotion NEWS
jcraver@comotionglobal.com
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