New Woodlands storefront brings hologram technology to the car-shopping experience

vr-oom

The Woodlands Mall shoppers can schedule virtual test drives, complete purchases, schedule deliveries of vehicles and meet with staff at this new high-tech store. Photo courtesy of JLL

The Woodlands-based online pre-owned car purveyor evrdrive has opened its flagship Customer Experience Center, or CXC, at The Woodlands Mall.

Designed by JLL Design Solutions, the modern space will allow shoppers to virtually tour the company's fleet of vehicles through its evrViewTM 3D hologram technology. According to a release, the technology can show evrdrive's full inventory of SUVs, cars, trucks, or other body styles and can display the vehicle's model specifications and history.

From the storefront, shoppers can also schedule virtual test drives, complete purchases, schedule deliveries of vehicles and meet with staff.

"We believe evrdrive is the future of automotive retail, and we are committed to providing our customers with a seamless and enjoyable shopping experience," Brian Singh, CEO of evrdrive, said in a statement.

evrdrive was founded in 2022, according to LinkedIn, and is part of Foundation Automotive Corp, a Houston-based company that owns car dealerships in the U.S. and Canada.

The company also runs a 55,000-square-foot Reconditioning Hub in the Houston area where vehicles are inspected and refurbished.

A number of new innovative auto ventures have rolled into Houston in recent months.

Self-driving ridehailing service Cruise expanded into Houston with its all electric, driverless cars in early May. The company launched services in Austin at the start of the year.

Uber Technologies, Inc. and Nuro also partnered last September to provide autonomous, electric vehicles for food deliveries in Houston. That same month, Drvn, a global on-demand chauffeur service, began operating in the Bayou City.

Drvn offers tech-savvy service, high-end cars, and various ride options. Photo courtesy of drvn

New tech-enabled chauffeur service stretches into Houston with upscale ride options

stay classy

Discriminating Houstonians who opt for luxury/executive car services (and who don’t, unfortunately, have a limo and driver of their own) now can choose an innovative, tech-savvy option.

Drvn, a global chauffeur service, has just rolled into Houston. Customers can look forward to on-demand rides — 24 hours a day — in various, upscale vehicles. Options start with first class; cars offered include sedans (Mercedes S Class, BMW 7 Series, or similar); SUVs (Cadillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator, or similar); and even vans (such as the Mercedes 1500).

Business class also offers sedans (Cadillac XTS, Lincoln Continental, or similar); SUVs (Chevrolet Suburban, Ford Expedition, or similar); and also vans (Ford Transit or similar).

Private charters for posh parties or travel parties include Grech minibuses (or similar) that can seat up to 36 passengers. Limousines are available upon request and subject to availability. All vehicles are black, for a more classic touch.

Just in time for society/gala season, drvn offers locals rides to events all around Greater Houston, as well as both major airports. (Drvn’s CEO David Medina tells CultureMap that the service is a hit in its Coral Gables, Florida headquarters, where well-heeled customers use it for event travel.)

Other service areas include port transfers to and from the Port of Galveston; drvn’s long-distance car service to Dallas; Oklahoma City; Shreveport, Louisiana; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Little Rock, Arkansas; and beyond. Drvn staff expects major demand for events, conventions, and conferences, plus executive car service for business clients.

Currently, those interested can book rides via the drvn site. Medina notes that a customer app is scheduled for later this year.

As for the cost: A simple search from the Memorial Park area to Bush Intercontinental Airport yielded point-to-point rides starting at around $226 in an executive class sedan. Users can also schedule and even request special cars and opt for hourly service (perfect for weddings, occasions, and that visiting celebrity friend).

Aiming to separate itself from local high-end car services, drvn promises “five-star, white-glove transportation” options, cutting-edge booking technology, and drivers who meticulously train and even undergo secret rides from drvn staff to assure quality control. Drvn hopes to entice business/executive car service clients with tech such as God’s view and GPS tracking (to keep tabs on the boss’s car), a live manifest, and uniform billing and communication.

Medina also hopes to separate his company by redefining what luxury actually means when it comes to car service.

“‘Luxury’ does not mean luxury for high-end private car service,” he says. “Luxury is a Flying Spur or a Bentayga, not a Mercedes S Class or an Escalade. But, a Bentley is not what is in the mind of professionals who seek ‘luxury’ private car service. It is a state of being. It is knowing, without saying, that your chauffeur not only has your best interests in mind, he has your experience in mind. It is part of his duty of care to know what you expect and deliver it with elegance and with no visible exertion. It is through the simplicity of this balance that drvn’s chauffeured service delivers a ‘luxury’ experience. Not the Bentley.”

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This article originally ran on CultureMap.

NuVinAir ReKlenz-X is safe for use in vehicles and can be used without damaging the interior. Photo courtesy of NuVinAir

New product sold in Houston gets EPA approval as eco-friendly, coronavirus-killing car cleaner

IN-CAR TECH

With the onset of COVID-19, the public is more aware than ever of cross-contamination, which extends from your home to your business to your car, and beyond.

NuVinAir announced that its latest product, ReKlenz-X, has gotten approval from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as an eco-friendly disinfectant. The company's Houston affiliate, Brian Ross, is selling the product.

ReKlenz-X kills 99.9 percent of germs, bacteria, and viruses in a vehicle's interior without compromising the integrity of the cabin. The product is on the EPA's "List N", which includes disinfectants for use to combat SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19."NuVinAir has proudly been at the forefront of helping ensure healthier commutes to drivers and passengers since launching in 2015. Adding this EPA-approved, oxygen-infused product that actually kills what's behind the coronavirus gives us an exciting extension to our 'Total Health' application," says Kyle Bailey, NuVinAir Global's CEO and founder.

"Our science-backed ReKlenz-X disinfectant cleans, protects, and disinfects safely and effectively — it's everything our automotive partners need in guaranteeing their customers' confidence in a safer, healthier vehicle," he continues.

To clean, the proprietary product uses an oxygen-enriched formula to quickly kills bacteria and viruses by destroying their cell walls through a process called oxidation. According to NuVinAir, ReKlenz-X contains no harsh chemicals, sticky residue, or dangerous volatile organic compounds. The result is a disinfected vehicle with no chemical smell.

ReKlenz-X is available in 32-ounce spray bottles through automotive dealerships, detail shops, rental-car companies, service centers, and vehicle fleets.

"Until now, any possible solution for killing the coronavirus was wrought with harmful chemicals, expensive equipment, and residue-leaving application devices that destroy the vehicle's interior," said Troy Blackwell, Chief Operating Officer for NuVinAir Global. "As a disinfectant and sanitizer, it can be applied to all interior vehicle surfaces using a microfiber towel. Paired with our premier detailing solution, ReNuSurface, as well as our patented Cyclone treatment, it takes deep cleaning to a whole new level for our automotive partners and their customers."

Dallas, Texas-based NuVinAir sells their products through a franchise system, similar to Line-X's business model.

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This article originally ran on AutomotiveMap.

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Rice student startup lands $1.85M to launch medical drone network

critical cargo

Students at Rice University have developed a medical cargo drone transport system to help deliver sensitive medical supplies and improve mobile healthcare efforts.

Haast Autonomous is the brainchild of graduating seniors Ege Halac, Jason Chen and Santiago Brent, who got their venture idea off the ground with help from the Liu Idea Lab for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Lilie) Summer Venture Studio. The founders have developed the prototype at Rice’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK) with fellow Rice researchers Felix Hasson, Ethan Javedan, Kenna Sanders and Caden Schmidt.

The startup has raised $1.85 million in pre-seed funding, according to Rice. The founders plan to focus on Haast full-time following graduation. They said they aim to launch pilot trials in 2027 and head to market later that year.

“We need better alternatives for a fast, safe and on-demand system of transport for life-critical cargo,” Halac said in a news release from Rice.

The Haast team has developed a custom aircraft with software that manages dispatch, routes, and chain of custody to assist in how materials move between sites in centralized medical systems. Generally, the transportation of medical supplies and materials between facilities and points of care relies on ground shipping or expensive air transport.

Haast Autonomous’ aircraft can take off and land vertically, and is designed around a mission profile of 50 to 62 miles. It can carry a payload of at least 5 pounds, with future versions intended to scale up in size. It also includes a built-in payload bay that regulates temperature, pressure, vibration and tilt to protect sensitive contents such as patient samples, antivenom or poisoning kits and radioligands or other therapies, according to Rice.

At first, the company envisioned the mission to be centered around transplants, but saw the product being best suited for a variety of operations.

“What we realized is that the platform we are building is suited for medicine, but it really underlies a much larger problem of mission-critical transport across industries,” Brent added in the news release. “We are building the fastest, most secure logistics chain for the world’s most sensitive cargo.”

Haast Autonomous was recognized at the 2026 Oshman Engineering Design Showcase and Competition, where it won Best Aerospace or Transportation Technology. It also performed well in the 2026 Napier Rice Launch Challenge.

In the future, Haast Autonomous plans to deploy a fleet of aircraft. The software will be designed to assist hospitals in requesting flights and tracking deliveries in real time.

“The drone is only part of the solution,” Chen also added in the release. “What matters is moving something from point A to point B in a way that fits into how hospitals already operate.”

Houston scientist wins prestigious Pew Scholar award for brain cancer research

standout scholar

Christina Tringides, an assistant professor of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, is one of 21 scientists to win a prestigious Pew Biomedical Scholar award.

She is the first faculty member from Rice to win the distinction, which provides $300,000 over four years for advances in biomedicine, according to the university. The awards are granted to researchers who are in the first few years at the assistant professor level.

In Tringides’ case, the funding will support her innovative new method of modeling glioblastoma, a common and extremely aggressive form of brain cancer. Thanks to producing its own blood supply, glioblastoma spreads quickly, weaving tendrils of blighted tissue throughout the brain. Because of this, surgery is difficult and conventional therapies ineffective.

Understanding the way glioblastoma spreads is crucial to the search for a cure. Tringides is using hydrogels that mimic the brain’s extracellular matrix. Using cultures and a microscopic labyrinth, her team can see how the cancer spreads, bonds with neurons and changes cell wall activity. Essentially, Tringides has devised an intelligence test for tumors in hopes of learning how to outsmart them.

“As cancer crawls through the maze, we can look at how it is interacting with the neurons more and more, and measure how electrical activity is changing as a result,” she said in a news release from Rice.

Examining how cancer cells grow can reveal which conditional changes slow them down. Finding ways to alter the structure of brain matter in a way that makes it inhospitable to the cancer could lead to therapies that would impede growth or even reverse it. Using her custom-made ersatz brain maze makes it easier to observe changes than it would be in a patient’s brain.

“Imaging synapses is time-intensive ⎯ it can involve large data files that are hard to visualize, but if we know that the only place where we might have a synapse is this tiny 1-by-4-by-10 micron channel, it makes it much faster and reliable to image them,” Tringides said.

Born in Ames, Iowa, Tringides received her doctorate in biophysics from Harvard before joining Rice in 2024 through a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) recruitment award.

Her research was also one of the first four projects to receive research awards through the Rice Brain Institute and TMC Neuro Collaboration Seed Grant Program.

Texas residents earn 11th highest income in U.S., says 2026 study

Money Matters

A new WalletHub study comparing income disparities across America has ranked Texas residents No. 11 on the list of states with the highest earning residents in the nation.

The report, "States Where People Have the Highest Income (2026)," analyzed U.S. Census Bureau income data in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The report evaluated the average annual income of the top five percent, the median annual household income, and the average annual income of the bottom 20 percent of residents in every state, all adjusted for the cost of living.

The report's data revealed the top five percent of Texans, the highest earners, make $520,378 on average yearly after adjusting for the cost of living. That's the seventh-highest income among the top five percent of earners nationwide.

Meanwhile, the median annual income of a Texas household is just under $76,000. The bottom 20 percent of Texas residents make $17,651 a year, the report found.

For additional context, the latest data from the Federal Reserve shows an American household's median yearly income is about $83,700. WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo also found that the highest earning 10 percent of individuals in the U.S. earn over 12 times more than those in the lowest-earning 10 percent, based on the latest Census data.

"By measuring the income of various percentiles against a state's median income, we can better identify where income disparities are more prevalent, which could help us better understand why residents of certain states struggle more to make ends meet," said Lupo.

Virginia is the state where residents earn the highest income in the U.S., WalletHub said. Based on the report's findings, the top five percent of Virginians make $545,097 on average per year after adjusting for the cost of living. The median annual income of a Virginia household comes out to $95,339, and the bottom 20 percent of residents make $19,671 annually on average.

Conversely, West Virginia is the state where people have the lowest income in the U.S. A West Virginia household makes a median annual income of $56,610, the third-lowest nationally, and the bottom 20 percent of residents make $13,260 on average per year, which is the fifth-lowest in the nation. The top five percent of West Virginians make $372,218 on average per year.

The top 10 states where residents have the highest income are:

  • No. 1 – Virginia
  • No. 2 – New York
  • No. 3 – New Jersey
  • No. 4 – Washington
  • No. 5 – Connecticut
  • No. 6 – Utah
  • No. 7 – Colorado
  • No. 8 – Minnesota
  • No. 9 – Illinois
  • No. 10 – Massachusetts

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This article originally appeared on CultureMap.com.

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