Columbus, Ohio, is the winner of the $50 million U.S. Department of Transportation Smart City Challengeaccording to multiple reports.

$40 million are to come from the government, and another $10 million from Paul Allen-backed Vulcan.

Austin was in the running, along with San Francisco, Portland, Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Denver. For Columbus, local businesses pledged to supplement the funds, bringing the total to about $90 million.

The Columbus pitch included a driverless vehicle test fleet as a means to create new jobs, a transit pass payment system and more transportation  access for poor neighborhoods.

You can see the Columbus video pitch below:

About the Author

Keep Reading

One reader is asking the AJC to help her find cottage cheese made by Mayfield. (Ihar Balaikin/Dreamstime/TNS)

Credit: TNS

Featured

Members of the conversion crew take a break as the main scoreboard is lowered to the floor to be worked on as the arena gets ready for the next concert at State Farm Arena, Thursday, October 2, 2025, in Atlanta. The crew was working on creating a stage for the Friday, Oct. 3 Maxwell concert. (Jason Getz/AJC)

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com