An East Bay hidden gem adjacent to the City of Concord known as GoMentum Station has been serving as the nation’s largest secure facility dedicated to connected automated vehicle testing. Located on the site of the Concord Naval Weapons Station, this unique test bed provides an opportunity for test partners to push their technology to the limits while testing within a controlled environment.
On Friday, September 23, 2022, the generous team at the Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA) offered a group of East Bay EDA members and partners the opportunity to visit GoMentum Station and seeing it in action! GoMentum is built on a public-private partnership model for entities to prototype and test new technologies as they are being developed. In addition to featuring more than 20 miles of roadway, the site has many unique assets that make it an ideal testing ground for the latest in AI and autonomous vehicle technology: two 1400-foot tunnels, curbs, gutters, and sidewalks; railroad crossings; potholes; a smart signal lab; and a mini-city that can support multi-modal testing.
While not quite as elaborate as the highly publicized tour of GoMentum Station that CCTA recently did with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, East Bay EDA’s carefully selected delegation visiting the site included many regional business leaders, multiple community college deans and instructors, as well as representatives from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory. During the 2+ hour ride-along and tour around the site with CCTA Executive Director Tim Haile and Matt Alfano, Vice President of Mobility Innovation for AAA of Northern California, Nevada & Utah, visitors learned about the many ways that companies and investors are and will be able to continue to tap into different assets and resources to develop next-generation transportation solutions and technologies.
The pace and scale of innovation happening at GoMentum Station is yet another example of how the East Bay is home to several emerging growth industries, including advanced manufacturing, biomedical, clean tech, and life sciences that are foundational to our region’s prosperity and quality of life. Some industry subsectors have more than doubled in size over the past five years, and despite the uncertainty created by the pandemic, several of them are continuing to grow at a rapid pace. These industries of the future – which we call “industries to watch” in Chapter 4 of our East Bay Forward economic blueprint – will continue to evolve and thrive if our region can continue to find creative and innovative solutions to address the complex challenges facing our communities and world today.
We invite you to join East Bay EDA as we work with our partners from business, government, nonprofits, and other sectors as our region forges ahead to overcome our challenges and maximize potential opportunities for all. Stay engaged with our work by following us on social media at @eastbayeda on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.