The silver lining in the COVID-19 pandemic, for me, is seeing how people have come together to encourage and care for one another during this challenging and disorienting time. John Krasinski, in his “Some Good News” episodes, shares positive news and uplifting clips of families, nurses, and coronavirus survivors to bring a little light into our homes. Grab a tissue before you watch.

Inspired by Krasinski, I wanted to share some good news from the transportation world – where people and companies are repurposing technology and using what they have in new ways to solve problems.

In Florida, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority has partnered with autonomous mobility platforms Beep and Navya to transport medical supplies and COVID-19 tests from drive-thru clinics to the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville – via fully autonomous shuttles with no attendant. The samples are placed in secure containers and loaded onto shuttles by healthcare professionals. This protects staff from exposure and frees up their time to focus on caring for patients.

In New York City, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in the US, the car rental company Hertz has taken initiative to offer free car rentals to healthcare workers for the entire month of April. For those who must go to work, traveling in a private automobile is the safest travel option right now, rather than taking public transit. I hope more car rental companies can offer this service to people in other fields and in different cities, who must still go in to work and risk getting sick.

Since many people are following stay-at-home orders and not traveling unless they absolutely must – there have been massive reductions in traffic volumes on roads and decreases in ridership on public transit. Ridesharing companies are experiencing this reduction in customers as well. To help Uber drivers make ends meet, Uber has launched Work Hub, which allows drivers to find different gig work. Uber drivers can sign up with Uber Eats to deliver food, Uber Freight to deliver cargo, or use Uber to connect with other essential work in food production, warehouse logistics, and customer service.

In India, which is under a lockdown, Uber has partnered with Flipkart to deliver groceries directly to homes.

And last but not least, in China, a self-driving delivery startup called Neolix is using self-driving vans to transport medical supplies to cities like Wuhan. The vans can also disinfect city streets! This is a pretty incredible way to test and demonstrate the potential utility in automated technology.

I’ll continue to keep an eye out for innovations like these that are intended to help keep people and our economy moving forward. If you come across any exciting transportation innovation or technology that is being tested or deployed to help us during this pandemic, please feel free to share it with me at mfrost@washingtonpolicy.org.