Driverless delivery cars are coming to far north Fort Worth.
Estonian autonomous delivery vehicle manufacturer Clevon announced its expansion into the United States, opening its U.S. headquarters in AllianceTexas.
"We celebrate a second coming -- a new beginning -- to bring the future of last-mile delivery to Texas and beyond," said Clevon CEO Sander Sebastian Agur at a grand opening celebration at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport.
The Clevon 1 vehicles are approximately 8 feet long by 4 feet wide; they can go as fast as 31 mph and have a range of about 62 miles.
"Our new robot courier became the first in Europe to deliver autonomous parcels on the public streets," says Agur.
One teleoperator will supervise multiple vehicles, greatly reducing operational costs.
"Businesses like grocery retailers, logistics companies, same-day delivery companies, food and beverage businesses are actually having a hard time finding delivery drivers and facing (an) ever-growing volume of shipments to deal with," Agur says.
The president of the Republic of Estonia, Alar Karis, was on hand at the grand opening celebration, and he touted his country's commitment to innovation.
"Estonia has played only a small role in the European auto industry," says President Karis. "However, by combining the knowledge from academia with agile thinking of (the) business sector, Estonian companies are now leading the way in the new mobility sector."
And Estonia is more than happy to bring its innovation to the United States.
"The startup and digital sector has been among the fastest-growing areas of the Estonia economy," notes Karis. "And I believe that it is now time to bring innovation that was born in the digital sector to the rest of the economy and the rest of the world."
Brandom Gengelbach, the president of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce, says Clevon picked the perfect location to establish its U.S. headquarters.
"We have the best location in the world to create, test, manufacture and distribute next-generation commercial mobility solutions," says Gengelbach.
Ross Perot Jr., Chairman of Hillwood, the company that developed AllianceTexas, agrees.
"Fort Worth is like Estonia," says Perot. "It is a very modern forward-leaning city."
"We selected to place our U.S. headquarters here in Texas because of the great business environment," says Agur, "as we have managed to create partnerships that are essential to scale and commercialize autonomous vehicle technologies."
Perot says AllianceTexas has everything that Clevon could ever hope for in improving its technology.
"You can practice in our communities, you can practice on our apartment buildings, you can practice interfacing with FedEx, or with Amazon, or UPS -- all the delivery systems," Perot says.
Perot says Texas and the U.S. could learn a thing or two from Estonia.
"The digitization of Estonia is very impressive," says Perot, "and it's one that we need to adapt within Fort Worth, and then show the rest of the country how it's done."
"By combining technology with business and the partnership, you have managed to create something that will transform the whole mobility sector and hopefully will help to build a better world," says Karis.
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