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It’s electric! Miami mobility innovation on display at CoMotion

Riley Kaminer
Riley Kaminer
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Startups offer a major opportunity to improve our transportation systems in Miami and beyond

By Riley Kaminer

This year’s CoMotion conference, held at PortMiami, brought together a diverse range of transportation leaders to discuss the future of mobility. Miami played a central role, with a particular focus on our local innovation ecosystem and the opportunities to address some of our region’s transportation woes.

Refresh Miami was there to soak in all the insights during the first half of the two-day conference. Weren’t able to make it? Here’s what you missed.

Local leaders take a stab at solving Miami’s traffic woes

“We are making ourselves future ready,” proclaimed Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava. “That includes a future ready transportation system.” 

How does Levine Cava plan to make this vision come to fruition? Through tech, at least in part.

“It’s partnerships with all of you in this room – the innovators, the entrepreneurs, the movers and shakers and transit – that are helping us to make sure that we have a safer, greener, more efficient, and more comprehensive transportation system,” she said. “We are embracing innovation.”

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava

Eulois Cleckley, the director and CEO of the Department of Transportation and Public Works for Miami-Dade County, echoed this sentiment. “We want to make sure we’re living up to our four E’s: equity, environment, economy, and – most importantly – engagement,” he said. 

“We always want to make sure that our business community is really seeing the benefits of what we’re building moving forward. It’s really about supporting all things technology and mobility,” Cleckley added. To that end, a representative from the U.S. Department of Transportation acknowledged that Miami-Dade won a $2 million award to develop smart-city technologies.

Building Miami’s new transportation paradigm

Miami startups can be part of the solution to our transportation stressors, asserted Leigh-Ann Buchanan, the president of the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority. 

“At the Innovation Authority, we’re thinking about how to facilitate a pathway to revenue for mobility and transportation startups,” she told Refresh Miami. “Right now, if you are to pilot with a government, you often do so at your early expense. But early stage companies sometimes with really great solutions may not want to or may not have the ability to navigate a government pilot opportunity.”

“With the support of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava, the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority was granted $3 million to be able to invest at least a million dollars a year into startups that have innovative solutions to improve things like mobility and transportation,” Buchanan continued. Beyond pilots, Buchanan asserted that the county aims to create a more friendly environment for both local and global startups to build here and deploy their solutions in Miami.

Leigh-Ann Buchanan, president of the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority

Shining a spotlight on local Miami mobility startups

Miami already benefits from local startups providing a wide range of mobility offerings, and many of these companies participated in the expo portion of the event.

Joachim Hinder, the founder and president of Urban IQ, is building the future of micromobility right from Miami. “Most people have a vision for vehicles; I have a vision for organizing traffic,” the native German explained.

What is Hinder’s vision exactly? Micromobility at your fingertips. Urban IQ works with organizations such as condo buildings to deploy micromobility devices such as e-bikes and electric kick scooters for residents to share. 

The thesis centers on the idea that most people take a device from point A to point B… and then back to point A. Hinder also pointed out that many South Floridians are away for large portions of the year, making the shared aspect quite tempting. He also signaled that condo buildings are interested in pitching this service as an additional amenity – an advantage in the ceaseless battle for tenants. 

Joachim Hinder, president of Urban IQ

Meanwhile, charging was a major focus at the event. Chargepros, a company that sells, installs, and services EV chargers was sharing its vision for becoming the “Geek Squad” of EV charging. OBE Power also had a booth and told us about their growth as an EV charging-as-a-service platform. The company now has 363 charging stations across Florida, Texas, Georgia, and Louisiana.

Fort Lauderdale-based Circuit was also on hand to showcase their electric shuttle service, which is available across South Florida – including through a partnership with Brightline. Boca-based Guident also showed its autonomous vehicle control system.

Ray Payano is founder and CEO of Chargepros, aiming to be the ‘Geek Squad of EV charging’

Coming up tomorrow at CoMotion: a panel on investing in innovation in Miami-Dade, a workshop on how to access federal funding in the mobility sector, a discussion on investing in Latin America featuring Mana Tech’s Charly Esnal, and more.

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Riley Kaminer
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