Arizona autonomous vehicle consortium adds State Farm as partner

PHOENIX — The year-old Arizona consortium created to advance the development of autonomous vehicles added its first insurance company to the mix.

Gov. Doug Ducey announced during a Phoenix tech conference Thursday night that State Farm was joining the Institute for Automated Mobility, an initiative he started in 2018.

IAM brings together the state’s three public universities, state agencies and private industry to collaborate on vehicle safety research and policy.

“We look forward to many groundbreaking achievements together in the months and years ahead,” Ducey said during DesTechAZ, the same conference where IAM was unveiled in 2018.

Gov. @dougducey announces that the country’s largest auto insurer, @StateFarm, is the first insurance company to partner with the Institute of Automated Mobility (IAM) tonight at @DesTechAZ! @DrPanch @stevewoz @SandraWatsonAZ #DesTechAZ #innovation #leadership #automatedvehicles pic.twitter.com/lP9hFlCSTY

— Arizona Commerce Authority (@azcommerce) October 18, 2019

Ducey said initiatives like this help lay the foundation to grow Arizona’s reputation as a premiere tech hub. With the addition of State Farm, it gives the consortium another sector to contribute to its research.

“Our involvement in IAM will help State Farm better understand this emerging technology and make sure our customers’ needs continue to be met now and in the future,” Mark Oakley, senior vice president of labs at State Farm, said in a press release on Friday.

In its first year, IAM launched its first on-road project in the Phoenix area and developed other research initiatives. As IAM continues to grow, it will have multiple facilities that can conduct research and testing scenarios.

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