Tennessee makes $2.9M investment to fuel future of automotive industry in state

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) is investing $2.9 million into several programs across the state aimed at drawing mobility research and development investments to diversify the automotive industry and economy.

The $2.9 million, approved by the General Assembly, will fund seven programs focused on mobility research and development, including one that will use lidar sensors to address traffic fatalities and injuries, and another that will use artificial intelligence to update students, staff, and parents on school bus routes and reconfigure routes during emergency situations and driver shortages.

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“When you can pull in emergency data as soon as it hits their database and it can be incorporated into a bus route, that allows buses to be diverted in a different direction, so students spend less time on the bus, they’re safer on the bus,” Braden Stover, chief policy officer for the TNECD said.

Students and staff from the state’s top research institutions, including Vanderbilt University, the University of Tennessee, and the University of Memphis, will work with industry leaders on the programs to ultimately show automotive industries already in Tennessee the state is not only a manufacturing hub, but also a hub for innovative tech.

“Since we already have the foundation here and a lot of those companies have already made the investments and a lot of their teams are already here, it’s really kind of an open door for us have these conversations to say, ‘You guys have already invested so much in the state and created so many jobs getting here in the state, we’d love to go to the next phase of that,'” Stover said.

The goal is to build upon the state’s current automotive industry and attract industry-related research and development investments to ultimately bring new, different jobs to Tennessee.

“We’re excited to see what the economic impact will be from these as we kind of shift and see this tech-based economic development take hold for, not just Tennessee, but the country in general,” Stover said.

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The investment is through the Transportation Network Growth Opportunity (TNGO) initiative, which received $5 million from the General Assembly during the 2023 legislative session and an additional $2.5 million in the spring of 2024.

TNECD expects to provide updates on the programs’ progress within the next year.

For more information on all seven programs, click here.

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