The Ray and Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners Partner to Further Transportation Innovation Combining Urban and Rural Settings

June 28, 2019 /3BL Media/ The Ray and Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners, are excited to announce a partnership to further transportation innovation in Georgia. The key purposes of this partnership include:

• The facilitation of emerging technology testing and demonstration between the two locations of The Ray’s 18-mile interstate corridor in Troup County and the City of Peachtree Corners 1.5-mile autonomous vehicle test track in Gwinnett County.
• Collaboration on external funding proposals
• Joint projects with academic and commercial entities working on the future of mobility

“It’s really such a natural fit,” said Harriet Langford, founder, and president of The Ray. “We’re a high-speed, public interstate in ex-urban Georgia, and Peachtree Corners' smart city project is located within a 500-acre commercial park with slower speeds that encounter pedestrians, deliveries, and other elements that we don’t have on The Ray. By working together, we can cover so much more ground.”   Our national transportation system is going through a massive period of disruption. Increasingly connected cars and a future with fully autonomous vehicles will require that both cities and states carefully assess current infrastructure and make modifications in ways that were unimaginable even a decade ago. Communications infrastructure, in particular, will be critical to enable vehicles of the future to communicate with one another and with anything they encounter along the way including humans.   Curiosity Lab will have a 5G enabled environment and more than 1G of dedicated fiber to facilitate testing for both early-stage startups and mature companies. According to Brian Johnson, City Manager of Peachtree Corners, “We have already had inquiries from companies wanting to test everything from drones, to delivery to cybersecurity. Our collaboration with The Ray presents a compelling opportunity to test similar technology in very different environments.”   The Ray has long known and advocated for technologies which already exist that can make our roads safer, smarter, cleaner, more efficient and productive, all while being sustainable and less degrading to our environment. Curiosity Lab, one of the only public test tracks in the world, opens later this summer.   Together, Curiosity Lab and The Ray can attract additional transportation research and development investment in Georgia leading to job growth and economic development adding to the state’s reputation as an innovation leader. Both the partnership model and the technologies launched can be examples for other states across the nation and throughout the world.   About The Ray: The Ray is a living lab for the evolving ideas and technologies that are transforming the transportation infrastructure of the future, beginning with the 18 miles of interstate dedicated to the memory of Ray C. Anderson (1934-2011). Since 2014, The Ray, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT), has piloted some of the country’s boldest transportation technology projects, including the U.S.’s first solar road and a first-in-the-world, drive through tire safety station. This month, The Ray and GDOT launched a data pilot focused on so-called “connected vehicles,” and later this summer will announce an autonomous vehicle infrastructure project. Find out more about The Ray.   About Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners: Curiosity Lab is a 5G enabled autonomous vehicle and smart city living laboratory located in Peachtree Corners Georgia, a northern suburb of Atlanta. The centerpiece of the lab is a 1.5-mile test and demo track which provides a real-world environment to explore emerging technologies. Additional infrastructure includes a network operations center, smart poles, DSRC units, dedicated fiber and a 25,000 square foot tech incubator. Additional information can be found at www.curiositylabptc.com   About Peachtree Corners: Located within the metropolitan Atlanta market of approximately 6 million people, Peachtree Corners is conveniently located near five major highways and just 30 minutes northeast of Atlanta’s Hartsfield Jackson International Airport. Founded on July 1, 2012, the city is home to approximately 45,000 residents, 45,000 jobs, and an autonomous vehicle test track and smart city living laboratory called “Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners.” Learn more about the city of Peachtree Corners at www.peachtreecornersga.gov