Central Ohio Matters
Central Ohio Matters is a podcast where host Michelle Gatchell discusses the issues shaping Central Ohio's future. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local leaders, visionaries, and changemakers driving progress in Central Ohio. These conversations provide insights into the challenges facing our communities and the solutions being developed to move them forward.
Central Ohio Matters covers government policies, healthcare challenges, housing and business developments, transportation solutions, education, and innovation. It is your guide to understanding and engaging with the pulse of Central Ohio.
You can listen to Central Ohio Matters on WVXG 95.1 FM (Marion and Morrow Counties) and WDLR 96.7 FM, 1270 AM (Delaware, Franklin, Marion, and Union Counties).
Also, find it on your favorite podcast streaming sites.
Central Ohio Matters
The Future of Mobility: How Central Ohio Is Leading the Way
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The future of mobility is taking shape in Central Ohio, and it's happening faster than most people realize. A groundbreaking partnership between Lextant and the Marysville/Union County Port Authority is transforming the Automotive and Mobility Innovation Center (AMIC) into a hub for transportation innovation, drawing attention from companies worldwide.
Ohio's Beta District—stretching along the 33 corridor between Ohio State University and the Transportation Research Center—has quietly become a premier testing ground for autonomous vehicles, drone technologies, smart infrastructure, and connected transportation systems. The fiber-equipped corridor enables the real-world testing of vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication systems. At the same time, Marysville itself has become a laboratory for smart city implementation, featuring connected intersections that communicate directly with passing vehicles.
What makes this initiative unique is its unwavering focus on human-centered design. As Chris Rockwell, CEO of Lextant, explains, all the AI and automation ultimately need to serve human needs. "Mobility is fundamentally about freedom and empowerment," he notes, emphasizing that technology must be designed to enhance human capabilities rather than fight against natural behaviors. This approach addresses the trust gap that has slowed adoption of autonomous features—people reject technology that feels ambiguous or unpredictable.
The Innovation Park is already home to companies developing life-saving technologies. Pairwave is creating drones for first responders, RMV is pioneering robotic roadway repair systems that keep maintenance workers safe, and Ease Logistics is advancing commercial truck platooning for improved fuel efficiency. These innovations don't just represent technological advancement; they're solving real problems and potentially saving lives.
Beyond creating a hub for established companies, AMIC serves as an incubator for startups and a talent development pipeline that's creating opportunities for engineers and innovators. The facility is open to the public for innovation workshops, design thinking sessions, and collaborative meetings, inviting broader community participation in shaping the future of transportation.
Want to see firsthand how mobility innovation is transforming our region? Visit the AMIC or Beta District websites to learn more about tours, events, and opportunities to engage with the technologies that will reshape how we move in the coming decades—all this and more on Central Ohio Matters. Don't forget to download, like, and share to help us grow.
Welcome to Central Ohio Matters, the podcast where we delve into the issues that shape Central Ohio's future. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local leaders, visionaries and changemakers driving progress in our region. These conversations offer insights into the challenges our communities face and the solutions being crafted to move them forward. Here's your host, michelle Gatchel forward. Here's your host, michelle.
Chemical Incident in Franklinton
Speaker 2Gatchel. I'm going to start off with a news story out of Franklin County, actually in Franklinton. Scary moments for residents. When they started to smell something odd in the air, they called and Columbus Fire Department actually was called to the scene of GFS Chemicals Inc. They called the Ohio EPA, who I asked some questions of. The Ohio EPA emergency response team responded they found out their coordinator on scene found out that the company, during a routine process, a hydrogen bromide solution began to fume into the air, a portion of which the fumes migrated outside of the facility.
Automotive Innovation Center Partnership
Speaker 2The Ohio EPA says there was no observed environmental damage from the incident and they believe that there was no threat to wildlife. They did say that if anyone has questions in the area they should call the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and that the company told them that they hired an environmental contractor to clean up any remaining residual material. They also said that if any local residents have concerns of health issues, that they should call their local health department or the Ohio Department of Health. If you have a question about a company and whether or not they have previous violations with the Ohio EPA, they say you can check their website, put in the company name and search for any previous violations. And in other news, the Marysville Union County Port Authority and Lexdent, a nationally recognized leader in human-centered research and innovation, announced a strategic partnership to operate and promote the Automotive and Mobility Innovation Center, which is located in Marysville's Innovation Park. And joining me to tell us all about what this partnership means for the area is Lexton's CEO and founder, chris Rockwell. Chris, thanks for joining me.
Speaker 3Hey, michelle, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2Yeah, so I can't wait to find out what ends up in this innovation part, because just the title alone suggests a lot of cool stuff.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's an amazing opportunity really. Central Ohio, as you know, has become a real leader in future mobility, whether it be air mobility or commercial mobility or consumer mobility, so we're super excited about what's happening in the area. The beta districts are anchored by Ohio State University and the Transportation Research Center, the 33 corridor, which is now instrumented with fiber so we can do all types of smart and V to X, vehicle to infrastructure or vehicle to vehicle type of testing, and in the middle, at the heart of all that, is the Automotive Mobility and Innovation Center there just outside of Marysville, and so we're sort of a magnet for innovation, for collaboration and for networking on all things future mobility for Marysville and Union County.
Speaker 2So mobility can be drones. I mean, what are we talking? Mobility.
Speaker 3Yeah, certainly yeah, we're doing work in unmanned air vehicles. We're doing work in commercial platooning with Ease Logistics, which is located right there in the Innovation Park Paveway, is one of our members at the AMIC and they're working on drones for first responders Amazing technology, sort of a start in an upcoming company. So really excited about the kind of work that's happening there and, of course, all the smart and connected type of vehicle work that's happening with Honda and Marysville. You know Marysville is beginning to deploy lots of smart types of technology smart intersections and the like to begin to test, prove out and refine. You know automation for future mobility is really impressive work that they're doing and what Dublin's doing, for example. So you know we're right on the cusp of what's what mobility is going to look like in the future.
Speaker 2Yeah, you know this said that you guys are going to be operation management for this, so will you be recruiting companies to come to Ohio?
Speaker 3Yeah, so it's a combination of things as management partner for the Amex. So, first of all, lexington. One of Lexington's primary businesses is in user experience for future mobility. So Lexington has been 25 years now. I founded it really around a singular idea and that is how do we put the people that we design for the communities, the end users, the customers at the center of that innovation process, to make sure that the things we make are learnable and intuitive and easy to use and desirable, and so that's really important for the future of mobility. Right, we can deploy this technology, but we have to be sure that we're creating experiences that people want and they want to adopt.
Speaker 3So Lexington is working on all things smart, connected, autonomous and electrified types of ecosystems for future mobility. So when we met Eric Phillips and the team from Union County, it was a very natural fit the kind of work that we're doing and the kind of work that they're doing. We have good relationships too with the Center for Automotive Research at Ohio State, with the Transportation Research Center and Brett Rubinick out there, so this was really a nice fit to do a couple things. One is to attract innovation, innovation, testing and improving grounds for future mobility types of technology and startup companies and educators and anybody who wants to come and learn about and promote future mobility kind of work, but then also promote the capability of the Beta uh Amic at the heart of that. So it's an exciting time now when you think about all of the ways that, um, future mobility is being transformed through automation and connectedness and, uh, I'm excited to sort of be pushing uh Amic forward as part of the team.
Human-Centered Mobility Design
Speaker 2Have any companies signed on to be in that area yet.
Speaker 3Yeah, I mentioned, for example, Pairwave, which is a startup that's doing air mobility specifically for first responders, so they're developing drones and AI types of technology to help first responders. It's an incredible company that's up and coming. And we have other companies. Last week we gave a demo for a robotic roadway repair system. So it's really I'm super excited about this company, rmv. They're based in Cincinnati, but they're already working with ODOT to do automated roadway repair and it's incredible technology. And again, you know a startup up and coming, sort of looking for next rounds of funding, and it was really neat to have them doing their demo there at the EMIC just last week.
Speaker 2And that is so important. Unfortunately, I've you know when I was in the news business I did one too many stories how ODOT workers on the side of the road repairing the roads would get hit. Yeah, yeah, that's going to save lives.
Speaker 3Yeah, I guess one of those kind of human factors things you know that Lexington and you know the Amec have been working on is how do we improve roadway safety, how do we protect vulnerable roadway users? That's something that the Beta District is looking at. Drive Ohio is looking at ways to continue to improve safety and experience on our highway systems, and you know when you're deploying a maintenance site on a highway or when you're taking that down, those are the most vulnerable times for roadway crews, and so this technology has the opportunity to really improve and save lives.
Speaker 2Yeah, so Doug McCullough in the press release when he was talking about you guys, said that Lexington has the ability to turn unmet user needs to smarter mobility solutions. So what does that look like?
Speaker 3Well, it's really about human-centered design. With the advent of all this new technology you know, you hear about laser type of technology and GPS and vehicle to vehicle or vehicle to infrastructure communication All that technology ultimately has to serve the end users, serve the community and serve the customers. And so what Lexan uses is a human centered design approach to make sure that we understand the needs of the end users who are going to be using these new technologies. And then we work with the companies to design future experiences that are easy to learn, easy to use and deliver on desired experiences or emotional outcomes like trust and confidence and the kind of things we really need for adoption. And you don't have to look too far, you know, to see how we're struggling, maybe to get the kind of electric vehicle adoption that we had hoped, or even some ADAS features, you know, automated features that we want people to adopt and begin using. And it's partly because we just haven't focused enough on making sure that we understand the human component.
Speaker 3And that's why Lexnet exists. That's the way that we approach all this kind of innovation work and we do a lot of testing right here in Ohio. We like to say that Detroit comes to Columbus to innovate next generation customer experience. We have our Insights Garage. Lexnet's Insights Garage is in Powell there where we do a lot of testing on the future of Honda and Stellantis and Ford and General Motors and Toyota vehicles. We're looking at connected experiences or in-vehicle experiences, because it's important to keep the human in the loop iteratively and often as part of that design and development process. So that's the role that Lexant often serves on these teams.
Speaker 2Fun. Yeah, it's great, you get to see it all in the creation part.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's great stuff To me. You know, I love to see what happens when we put humans in the loop. You know, and as much as we're working on the future of automated systems and things like that, it's you know, it's ironic AI and all these things. It's ironic that really it's about the human. You know, at the end of the day, how do we improve, how do we accelerate what we our potential, our creativity, our productivity, our safety through new technologies? It's a great time to be in future mobility, super excited about it.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean, and people may not think about it, but when you sit down in your car to drive it and the screens are there now, they were tested and approved to be not in line of sight with your steering wheel, and there is so much that made your user experience usable.
Innovation Park Development
Speaker 3Yes, that made your user experience usable. Yes, yeah, there are whole teams of folks working on, you know, the safety and the experience of these next generation types of systems. And you know you think about driver distraction, right. You think about what technology or capability people need in the vehicle. And this isn't just roadway, you know. I mean there's also. If you think about commercial platooning, you know trucks will. There's also, if you think about commercial platooning, you know trucks will drive in automated fashion. East Logistics and Drive Ohio are doing some amazing work on on platooning, where you have commercial vehicles driving in close formation in order to save fuel costs and to to be able to be more efficient and productive.
Speaker 3But there's a human component to that, the first and last mile, right. How do humans and technology take turns to make sure that that kind of experience could be successful? And it's the same way in marine, you know. So if you look at the development of marine, the electrification in marine, or the new development of interfaces and capability in marine, you know mobility is is super impressive. And then air mobility, which we're all really familiar with and have experienced. You know all that technology needs to be designed with the human first.
Speaker 2Now if we could just get the plane seats a little bigger in the common area. Now if we could just get the plane seats a little bigger in the common area.
Speaker 3Yeah, I hear you. Yeah, we're still trying to push a lot of put more people in planes, right? Yeah, yeah, might be working on some of that too, hey all right.
Speaker 2So how many buildings are we talking? What area are we talking about over there in the Innovation Park that you're going to be managing for this?
Speaker 3Yeah, park that you're going to be managing for this? Yeah, so the Innovation Park is right near Marysville and you'll see new buildings under construction there. The AMIC is in the building that's most closely facing 33 corridor there, but you'll see new buildings going up. Plotworks, for example, is having a ribbon cutting today, so that's exciting to see them move in. Ease has been really growing all their logistics operations out of the Innovation Park, so tons of development in that area and we're attracting businesses from all over the world.
Speaker 3Internationally, many companies from Japan are setting up innovation centers in the Innovation Park, using YAMIC for meetings and for innovation workshops and training, all types of events. Anybody, by the way, anybody can use YAMIC. If you want to come up there and have your design thinking session, your innovation session, your team training or even just an off-site or an event, we have tons of space up there. You want to have a conference up there, we can do that. So all types of things we can do up in the AMIC in order to facilitate and host your teams. You don't have to be working in mobility, you know, but there's, so there's a lot of just exciting innovation going on.
Speaker 2Do you have a track up there?
Speaker 3I'm sorry.
Speaker 2You have a track up there to test the.
Speaker 3So with our relationship with the Transportation Research Center we could certainly get access and test on all types of conditions for testing up there. So we have a smart intersection at the TRC. We can look at different types of roadways. There's safety there's a new safety crash testing center that's up there so there's all different ways you can test on the road on 33 corridor we have provision for that, the transportation research center, all types of static areas for testing and of course you have Lexington Insights Garage as well. So we can do almost any type of research for development and innovation there with a three-quarter in the Beta District.
Speaker 3It's really impressive. You know I don't think the folks in Ohio know just what a gem it is. You know the fact that you think about our smart city work. You think about the work that Ohio State is doing, the TRC is doing, the Beta District is doing Honda. You know we're really leading the way on the future of mobility.
Speaker 2Yeah, yeah. When you talk about the smart city part, I think a lot of people have no idea that Marysville is such a test for that.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Speaker 2It is amazing. It is amazing what they've been doing there with cars and being able to get messages to the cars just as you're driving through town. All that stuff has to be tested and worked out.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's all part of kind of a smart you know. You think about smart mobility. I mentioned V to X, so vehicle to X would be communication to infrastructure or communication to other vehicles, communication to the lights, the ability to find parking in smart ways. There's some great companies working on future of parking here. Future of parking here, if you look at some of the work that Dublin is doing on deployment of those kinds of new technologies and testing that super impressive work that's happening all around here.
Speaker 2Yeah, Okay, let's take a break here and when we come back we're going to talk more with Lexden's Chris Rockwell about the future of mobility and Amex Roll.
Speaker 1The conversation will continue after these messages. Stay tuned, and here's Heather with the weather.
Future of Mobility Technology
Speaker 4Well, it's beautiful out there, sunny and 75, almost a little chilly in the shade. Now let's get a read on the inside of your car it is hot. You've only been parked a short time and it's already 99 degrees in there. Let's not leave children in the back seat while running errands. It only takes a few minutes for their body temperatures to rise, and that could be fatal.
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Speaker 5I'm Scarlett Johansson. My family relied on public assistance to help provide meals for us. These meals fueled my involvement in theater and the arts as a child, which fostered my love for acting. The Feeding America network of food banks helps millions of people put food on the table. You can join the movement to end hunger by donating, volunteering and advocating, because when people are fed, futures are nourished. Join the movement to end hunger at feedingamericaorg slash act, now Brought to you by Feeding America and the Ad Council.
Speaker 6Hi, I'm Ryan Blaney, a third generation race car driver, and we dedicate a lot of our time to going as fast as possible.
Speaker 6My grandpa Lou is the reason why my dad and I started racing and I'm really proud to follow in his tracks. But when my grandpa was diagnosed with Alzheimer's it was a very unexpected bump in the road for us. I've learned a lot on this journey with my grandpa Lou and the memories of my grandpa will always be with me. It's important to notice if older family members are acting differently, experiencing problems with their memory or having trouble with routine tasks. Talking about Alzheimer's can be really tough, but if you notice something, have a conversation with your loved one, encourage them to see a doctor or offer to go with them. Early detection of Alzheimer's can give your family time to explore support services, make a plan for the future and access available treatments. The Alzheimer's Association provides care, support and research to help you take control of the situation with your family and manage the disease together. If you or your family are noticing changes, it could be Alzheimer's. Talk about seeing a doctor together. Visit alzorg slash time to talk. A message from the Alzheimer's Association and the Ad Council.
Speaker 2Welcome back. I am talking to Chris Rockwell. He is the CEO and founder of Lexdent, which was recently named strategic management partner for the Automotive and Mobility Innovation Center, and they are going to be working with the Marysville Union County Port Authority to do this. This partnership's goal is to accelerate smart mobility innovation across Ohio's Beta District and Chris, let's start. You know what does the future of mobility look like?
Speaker 3Well, as I mentioned, it's a great time to be in future mobility, because you think about connectedness, you look at AI, you look at the future of automation, you look at electrification, so there's all different ways that we're advancing mobility. You look at multimodal mobility, so you think about public transit, ways to innovate, getting people to economic opportunities for jobs. You think about air mobility, the ability now to move a much safer ways through unmanned vehicles, or the future of marine mobility or commercial mobility. So it's all coming and it's all increased and improved through automation and connectedness, and AI, of course, is going to be a big part of that too.
Speaker 2Yeah, I don't know how many people out there listening right now have been in some of these cars that you kind of can sit back and let the car drive for you. The first time I did that, I know it freaked me out. I was like, oh my God, put on the brake. Oh no, it's got it. Oh no, my God.
Speaker 3Yeah, Coming up on a car slow down, it does it.
Speaker 3It's amazing, yeah, If you look at the levels of automation.
Speaker 3There are several levels of defined automation everything from sort of your basic cruise control to sort of like a smart cruise control, like Blue Cruise or GM Super Cruise, for example, which is taking a little more active role in sort of lane keeping and distance following and keeping you safe in those things, and then you get all the way to sort of level four automation and like the Waymo the new Waymo system that's being deployed in several cities around the United States.
Speaker 3That will actually be a sort of autonomous ride procurement. So think about, you know, a driverless Uber or Lyft vehicle, and it's incredible the kind of capabilities we have now through sort of computer aided vision, AI sensing and control. You know so and it's interesting, you know, with Waymo, for example, the most important part of that whole design system is to establish trust of the occupants in the rear seat, right, how do we establish trust? Help them understand what the vehicle is seeing and how it's managing the trip for you, and that's the way you get people to really adopt and use that kind of new technology. That's coming and it's coming quickly.
Automation and Trust in Vehicles
Speaker 2Yeah, I actually interviewed a woman from University of Florida working on. She studied and you're going to think I thought it was a little crazy when I first heard it, but it makes perfect sense. She studied human history of our relationship with riding horses, because riding a horse, that's what we did for ever, right Before we got cars. And how do your legs, how do you feel your horse turning left, turning right, all that stuff.
Speaker 3She was like we can put this in car seats and let the human trust it. It was amazing, and so there's much to how humans sense the perception and cognition of movement that we can use in the new vehicle design to sort of improve personalization. Let me give you an example. So your lane keeping assist, for example, which the purpose of that function is to keep the vehicle in the lane right, not to let you leave the lane accidentally.
Speaker 2Right.
Speaker 3It's a great safety feature, but there's a couple of ways it's designed. It's either designed to keep you right in the middle of the lane or it's sort of pogo sticking or banking off of the lanes. Well, humans don't like either one of those Humans don't drive in the middle of the lane typically. You and I sort of prefer one side or another of the lane. So what we can do with this new technology is understand driver preferences, understand how people perceive and want to drive or want to experience mobility, and then we can customize the technology for better adoption and use, because if the technology fights the occupants of the vehicle or the driver of the vehicle, then people just turn it off.
Speaker 3There are two things that people hate in experience ambiguity and unpredictability, and I don't care if it's personal relationships or the technology you're using. If you don't really understand how it works and it seems random and unpredictable, people will push away from those kind of experiences and we won't see adoption and use like we want. So that's one of the things that Lexan is always trying to understand is how to reduce ambiguity and unpredictability in experiences, and automation is an AI, sort of assisted or collaborative types of experiences. It's really important that we get that equation right if we want people to adopt and use next generation mobility, you know.
Speaker 3And the other thing you mentioned, horses. Mobility is fundamentally about freedom and empowerment. Still Right, it doesn't matter if it's a horse or your motorcycle or your recreational vehicle or whatever it is. It's about freedom and empowerment. And so we always have to understand that those are the things we're solving for humans, and to the degree we can do that and create experiences that are intuitive and easy and meet emotional needs like trust and confidence, then we can succeed with them.
Speaker 2Yeah, I really do foresee a future where humans that have lost the ability to see properly to drive get mobility back and can go places again with this which I think is going to be fantastic, because they will have that freedom again.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, and so there's a lot of folks who can't be mobile now.
Speaker 3Who will be able to now, as you mentioned, with the kind of capability that's coming. The interesting, you know we call it the human machine or human automation paradox, which is we, when we automate things, it does enable, you know, folks to have greater mobility, but then, when we need them to take over and retain control of the vehicle, they need to have the skills right. So so we're walking this line between a fully autonomous world, which will be a long way out, except maybe small ecosystems, and how do you sort of create a collaborative or shared experience between new technology, and that includes smart and AI driven technologies too. So AI is in your vehicle now, not just, not just automation, but you know truly advanced AI, and we've been working on that. Now you know, once you think about Gemini in your vehicle, or next generation Alexa, or all the different types of AI that's in vehicles now or in every kind of experience that you're having, that will continue to drive new value for end users and communities. You know greater safety, greater productivity, greater enjoyment in mobility.
Speaker 2So are you going to have a component of this that, say, a new drone company comes into town or moves into that that people can find jobs hey, this company's coming in, there's going to be 20 jobs for engineers, you know, and they're going to be up and running by 2026 or whatever? Is there going to be some kind of a funnel like that?
AI Integration and Employment Opportunities
Speaker 3Yeah, well there's. You know, the one of the beta districts mission is not just to bring innovative companies here but to develop talent, and so right now, just on the 33 corridor, there are thousands of engineers who are working on next generation IT and mobility types of work. It is a proven ground, a place where young people can learn, can get opportunities to innovate, to build skill sets. So it's really an exciting time to develop the workforce too, for the future of mobility.
Speaker 2So how can people find more information out about this?
Speaker 3Well, you can go to AMIC on our website. Look at AMIC in Union County and in Marysville. You can go to the Beta District website, which will tell you more broadly about the ecosystem of mobility that's being developed here, and you can always reach out to me and I can give you more information on the Automotive Mobility and Innovation Center there In Marysville. We would love to have you come up tour, take a look around and see if it's the right place for you to develop your next generation innovation and also, like I said, come up and use it for your meetings and innovation. You know sessions and the like. There's great. It's really creative and cool space to do almost anything you want with your team.
Speaker 2Great Well, chris, I want to thank you so much for taking the time and telling us all about this new partnership that is going to bring future mobility, even a bigger presence, to the area.
Speaker 3Yeah, thanks, michelle. Thanks for the opportunity.
Speaker 1Thank you for listening to this episode of Central Ohio Matters. Be sure to like, share and download. We cover government policies, health care challenges, housing and business developments, transportation solutions, education and innovation. If you know of a good story, we Thank you.