We're outside Fort Myers, Florida
at a place called Babcock Ranch.
It's been called a living
laboratory for sustainability
and that's why it's being
built from the ground up
to accommodate self-driving vehicles.
(smooth techno music)
- So today the Society
of Automotive Engineers
is running another demo day.
It's with a self-driving
car from Perrone Robotics,
it's very similar to what
we saw earlier in the year
in Tampa where they had a
stretch of highway shut down
to show the capabilities
of a self-driving car.
Today is a little bit
different, they're collecting
feedback from a specific sector
of society, senior citizens.
- And what we do is survey the public
and really understanding
what their trust level
of the technology is.
- I've been down here 50 years,
I'm going to be 91 this year.
I went to renew my drivers
license this month,
they wouldn't give it to me (laughs).
In the future, a car like this
could give me transportation.
- This is actually an ideal
location for this demo.
Back in 1885, Thomas Alva
Edison purchased 13 acres
here in Fort Myers to
build his summer home and,
soon after that, both Henry
Ford and Harvey Firestone,
like the tire company Harvey Firestone;
they also bought summer homes down here.
So, there's an automotive
pedigree to Fort Myers
and there's also a history
of harboring snowbirds.
Babcock Ranch claims to have the first
autonomous shuttle fleet in North America
and there's other things in the works,
like the potential to have
a shared vehicle fleet
here on premises for
residents and to build
a supermarket that could be using
automated deliveries in and out
and they're building all
this from the ground up.
All the homes built at
Babcock Ranch must adhere
to Florida's green building guidelines
and there's things that you
wouldn't find in other places
even in new constructions,
like all of the homes here
have an electric charging
station for electric cars
and they have Gig Fiber to
the home, which is a luxury
that you're able to build
out when you're building
brand new construction
like what you see here.
We had a chance to sit
down with Syd Kitson,
he's a former NFL player
turned real estate developer.
He is the driving force
behind Babcock Ranch
and we talked to him about
how innovation and mobility
are at the center of
Babcock's business model.
- One of the things that we
did, which is very unique,
is we started with a school.
- [Narrator] Right.
- And when you start with a
school, what we were hoping
to do is get a multi-generational
group of people.
- [Narrator] Right, this is not
just a retirement community.
- That's very important, it's not
just a retirement community,
both the young people
and the empty nesters love the innovation.
When they move into Babcock Ranch,
they know they're moving
into a community that has
autonomous vehicles and an
autonomous vehicle system.
Those autonomous vehicles
are there now, day one
and it becomes part of the culture.
- With the first residents
moving in last year, in January,
and up to about 300
people living here now,
Babcock Ranch is growing quickly.
- If it doesn't work economically,
nobody else is going to do it.
- [Narrator] This place is living proof
that home buyers care
about sustainability,
they care about mobility,
they care about the future
of mobility and they're
willing to pay for it.
(music)
