Exploring AI in Shared Mobility
It was an amazing gathering at the Hennepin Event Center on November 12, 2025! The 2025 Transportation Summit: Exploring AI in Shared Mobility brought together over 80 transportation professionals, business owners, employers, community members, and advocates to look at the challenges and opportunities of integrating artificial intelligence in our region’s transportation sector.
The keynote speaker featured Tara Olds, MnDOT’s Director of Minnesota’s Connected and Automated Vehicles Program, who presented on how AI currently interfaces with Minnesota’s transportation system. Following the keynote, panel moderator Aaron Westling, Shared Mobility Program Manager at Great Plains Institute, led local transportation leaders on a discussion of emerging technology and what the implications may be for travel and commute patterns. The panel included Nick Martini, Senior VP at American Student Transportation and Northstar Bus Line, Tammy Meehan Russell, President of The PLUM Catalyst, and Erik Hansen, CEO of SouthWest Transit.
We left with a sharper understanding of how AI is influencing shared mobility today and where it’s taking Minnesota next. Let’s make sure we continue this conversation!
Keynote Highlights:
AI is officially part of the transportation conversation! Tara Olds connected the dots at our 2025 Transportation Summit.
1️⃣ Trust > technology.
AI is a tool (an “eager intern,” as Tara put it). It learns from existing data, which means bias, transparency, and human oversight are still essential. Trust is the real barrier, not the technology itself.
2️⃣ Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAV) have huge potential for safety, equity, and accessibility.
With 476 roadway deaths in Minnesota in 2024, CAV features like lane-keeping assistance, automatic braking, and redundant safety systems have real potential to reduce crashes when paired with traditional safety strategies.
3️⃣ Equity must be built in from the start.
CAVs can open new doors for mobility but only when the people most often left out of transportation decisions are intentionally brought into the process. Minnesota is working to ensure the benefits reach every community, not just those who adopt early.
4️⃣ Real deployments reveal real challenges and we need to learn from them.
Pilot projects like goMARTI highlight what works (accessibility, on-demand service) and what’s hard (maintenance, winter conditions, infrastructure gaps, recalibration, unpredictable human behavior). These lessons shape better policy.
5️⃣ Minnesota needs a clear statewide path to automated mobility.
With no federal AV policy, states are defining their own approach. #Minnesota is one of 16 states without AV legislation and the Governor’s Council on CAV has named “creating a path to driverless” as its 2025 priority.
More takeaways ✨
- Accessibility and land use are major themes. Attendees raised thoughtful questions about how AI can support people who are often left out of transportation planning, including disabled transit users and very rural communities. There was also strong interest in how AI could help reimagine dense cities, personalize mobility experiences, and make daily travel smoother and more intuitive.
- Many attendees left feeling more comfortable with AI in shared mobility. According to our Mentimeter responses, the room was largely “curious,” “excited,” and “hopeful” about AI’s potential after hearing the keynote and panel.
- One of the biggest challenges is overcoming the “fear of the unknown.” Whether it’s transit staff, bus operators, or leaders who don’t feel fluent in AI, there’s a clear need for more education, training, and communication around what AI actually does and doesn’t do.
- Key AI trends from Tara Olds’ keynote:
- Automated vehicles
- Predictive maintenence
- Smart traffic management
- Connected vehicles and v2x fleet optimization
View the Presentation slides Here
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