Ian Kinne, Director, Logistics Innovation, Hillwood joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss AllianceTexas and the Mobility Innovation Zone.

The conversation begins with Ian describing the vision behind Hillwood’s AllianceTexas development, a 27,000-acre development that has generated $92 billion in economic impact and created over 63,000 jobs in just 30 years.

Our platform grew from being a land development company to an industrial development company to a mixed-use development company which is now Alliance. – Ian Kinne

With Texas seeing unprecedented growth of companies either expanding or relocating their headquarters, there is still room to grow at Alliance as the development is only about 50% built-out. Alliance was built around innovation as Hillwood made the decision early on to embrace fiber connectivity due to the leadership of the Perot family.

The Perot family is incredibly forward-thinking. – Ian Kinne

With Amazon operating a regional air hub, FedEx operating a regional sort hub, UPS operating a ground hub, and BNSF operating an intermodal hub at Alliance, Ian has incredible insight into the global supply chain. With this insight, Grayson asks Ian what he is seeing in the supply chain.

The past 18 months really exposed some challenges in the global supply chain. – Ian Kinne

While the global supply chain faces challenges today, there is another challenge on the horizon — the truck driver shortage. This is where autonomous trucking comes into play as the technology will help to shore up the global supply chain. TuSimple recently opened their 2nd Texas autonomous trucking depot which will be part of their Autonomous Freight Network (AFN) at Alliance.

With the autonomous trucking industry actively expanding to the Dallas / Fort Worth region, Grayson asks Ian why Hillwood decided to embrace autonomous trucking early on.

We saw long-haul trucking leading the adoption of autonomy. – Ian Kinne

Autonomous trucking will complement the rail industry as the consumer demand for goods continues to rise. Ian and Grayson go on to discuss how these two industries will work together and why Alliance is well-positioned to embrace this soon-to-be emerging trend from an infrastructure standpoint.

Wrapping up the conversation, Ian and Grayson discuss the Mobility Innovation Zone and how Alliance is planning for the next 30 years.

Recorded on Tuesday, August 31, 2021

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