The project's goal is to better understand the potential for car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure to improve traffic safety and personal mobility.

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Last week, the Texas Transportation Institute released its annual Urban Mobility Report, a collection of terrifying traffic stats that arrive on a beeline to transit beat reporters.

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It would take four big changes, but the technology for all of them is already available: a new automotive DNA based on electronics and connectivity, a mobility internet to manage vast amounts of vehicle traffic and integrate vehicles into the internet of things, smart, clean renewable electric energy, and last but not least, it would require electronically managed, dynamically priced markets for electricity, roads, parking and vehicles, in other words, smart cities.

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The launch of DriveNow and ParkNow in San Francisco and other cities is part of our commitment to the development of new mobility offerings, which will reduce the level of pollutant emissions and traffic congestion and improve quality of life for residents.

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Google co-founder Sergey Brin points to other benefits, too: greater mobility for people with disabilities, more productivity for commuters now stuck in traffic, less congestion and less pollution.

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