Nancy Dahlberg | Refresh Miami

In sprawling, car-choked South Florida and beyond, a fleet of bright electric vehicles has been quietly rewriting the playbook for how cities move. What began 14 years ago as a scrappy marketing experiment on the streets of Miami Beach has blossomed into Freebee, the largest provider of microtransit in Florida.

Launched in partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Urban Poverty and Business Initiative, the program, Build Up, is designed to turn the entrepreneurial dreams of local residents into sustainable engines of economic mobility.

Beep, beep, your driverless Waymo awaits you – if you are part of a select group of riders in Miami. The initial territory, a 60-square mile area, includes the Design District, Wynwood, Brickell and Coral Gables, and there are plans to expand to Miami International Airport “soon,” the company said. And for now, your ride won’t hop on the highways.

Imagine that you could travel from Miami to Boca or Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach in under 20 minutes. That dream of electic air taxi service is inching along to reality, and a lot of activity is going on behind the scenes to make it happen over the next few years.

Tesla has already launched its robotaxi service in Austin in late June and San Francisco shortly after. In its annual shareholder meeting last week, the company said Miami, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Dallas and Houston will be next.

Insightec, the Miami-based innovator in focused ultrasound to transform patient care, announced July 8 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of its Exablate Neuro platform for staged bilateral pallidothalamic tractotomy treatment in patients living with advanced Parkinson’s disease.

It’s no secret that affordable housing has been harder and harder to find in Miami-Dade County. To help solve this growing problem, the Miami-Dade Innovation Authority Monday launched its sixth Public Innovation Challenge to identify tech-driven solutions to improve how residents access affordable housing.