The Autonomous Main Event: what to expect on September 29

This year, we’re going above and beyond! We are convinced that collaboration is crucial in the development of safe autonomous mobility. So, we reimagined our flagship event by extending it into the digital realm to allow even more international leading experts and decision-makers to meet and discuss the latest AV technologies, regulatory frameworks and safety approaches.  

There are still many blind spots when it comes to defining and measuring safety of autonomous vehicles. A widescale adoption of autonomous mobility can only happen if we build a solid ecosystem of top companies and institutions who join forces to tackle the biggest safety challenges for autonomous vehicles in a collaborative effort.  

This year’s event slogan is “Untying the knot”, in other words, solving these complex challenges by sharing knowledge, engaging in conversations and creating an inclusive international community to pave the way for safe autonomous mobility. Here is what you can expect. 

Hybrid panel discussions 

In-person and virtual top-class speakers will meet to spark debate and encourage critical thinking on a number of topics, such as: 

Disruptive Innovation vs.  Incremental Change 

Disruption lies ahead for the auto industry. To survive and thrive in this changing environment, auto industry incumbents will have to collaborate with newcomers and invest in the development of new technologies and products. The following speakers will join the panel: 

• Edzard Overbeek, CEO, HERE Technologies 
• Jody Kelman, General Manager – Lyft Autonomous, Lyft 
• Andrea Ketzer, Head of Engineering Platform & Ecosystem, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) Business Unit, Continental 
• Young Sohn, Chairman of the Board, HARMAN International 

Better secure than sorry – higher levels of connectivity come with bigger cybersecurity challenges  

Bluetooth, wireless entertainment and updates Over-the-Air: every new point of connection means a potential outside threat. The panel will evaluate the existing risks and discuss to what extent cybersecurity is being considered in the development process and what is needed to ensure cybersecurity.  

The following speakers will join the panel: 

• Reinhard Ploss, CEO, Infineon 
• Christoph Hartung, CEO, ETAS 
• Lars Reger, CTO & Executive Vice President, NXP Semiconductors 
• Simon Fürst, Principal Expert Autonomous Driving Technologies, BMW Group 

Regulation: will harmonized law make autonomous driving safe?  

The discussion about safety in relation to autonomous driving suffers from highly fragmented regulatory approaches in key markets – the USA and EU. Laws and rules for testing and driving automated vehicles vary vastly or are undefined. The panel will discuss barriers of the state of play in regulation and opportunities for expected developments. The following speakers will join the panel: 

• Benedikt Wolfers, Founding Partner, PSWP 
• Candice Plotkin, Director of Legal and Regulatory Policy, Cruise 
• Richard Damm, President of the German Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt) and Chair of the UNECE Working Party on Automated/Autonomous and Connected Vehicles (GRVA), UNECE 
• Gail Gottehrer, Attorney and Founder at Law Office of Gail Gottehrer 
• Brad Stertz, Director of Government Affairs, AUDI and Co-Founder and Chairman of Partners for Automated Vehicle Education PAVE 

Moderated by: Junko Yoshida, Editor in Chief, The Ojo-Yoshida Report 

Safety in AI – how to create truly safe intelligence 

Artificial Intelligence is a key component in autonomous vehicles’ ability to make human-like decisions. However, the benefit of intelligent decision-makers comes with its shortcomings: ensuring that intelligent AI algorithms take safe decisions. This panel will question and investigate how ethical AI decision are and how AI can handle safety-critical situations. The following speakers will join the panel: 

• Lucilla Sioli, Director for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Industry, European Commission 
• Stan Boland, CEO, FIVE 
• Gary Hicok, Senior Vice president of Engineering, NVIDIA 
• Georges Massing, Vice President MB.OS Automated Driving, Powernet & E/E Integration, Mercedes-Benz AG 
• Jan Becker, CEO, Apex.AI 

Safety Architectures 

“There is no single silver bullet to achieve safety.” This commonly accepted conclusion is not devoid of certain wisdom. But a solidly developed basis right from scratch might help to play it safe. World-class speakers will discuss how the industry should define and measure safety and how the vehicle system architecture accounts for safe automated driving.” The following speakers will join the panel: 

• Simon Segars, CEO, Arm 
• Stefan Poledna, CTO, TTTech Auto 
• Shinichi Yoshioka, CTO, Renesas 
• Sagar Behere, Director of Systems and Safety Engineering, Aurora 
• Bernhard Augustin, Director Development of Compute Platform for ADAS/Autonomous Driving, CARIAD 

Autonomous Mobility 

Air taxis, hyperloop, self-driving cars, autonomous planes – what does the mobility of tomorrow look like? The industry’s next objective is to focus on moving a person through multiple modes of connected travel. Skepticism persists and uncertainty abounds. The panel will look into the future of autonomous mobility and the technologies, data and services needed to make that movement possible. 

The following speakers will join the panel: 

• Laura Major, CTO, Motional 
• Josh Giegel, CEO and Co-Founder, Virgin Hyperloop 
• Michelle Avary, Head of Automotive & Autonomous Mobility, World Economic Forum 
• Pascal Traverse, Head of Autonomy, Airbus 

Inspiring keynotes 

• Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies – Collaboration for an autonomous world  
• Gary Hicok, Senior Vice President of Engineering, NVIDIA – End-to-End Solutions for Safe, Autonomous Vehicle Development 
• Trent Victor, Director of Safety Research and Best Practices, Waymo – Safely Deploying the World’s First Fully Autonomous Commercial Ride hail Service: Waymo Safety Assurance research 

In-person workshops (Vienna) 

We invite our in-person attendees to engage in cross-industry exchange with mobility industry experts on specific topics. As spots are limited, we kindly ask our event participants to register separately for the workshops. For more information, please check the links below: 

• Safety & AI  
• Safety & Architecture  
• Safety & Security  
• Safety & Regulation  
• Safety & Research  

Virtual Roundtables (for our virtual participants) 

Join online themed group discussions around various topics: safe architectures for AV, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence for AV development, and regulations for autonomous vehicles. You will find the roundtables schedule directly on the virtual event platform.  

Networking and audience interactivity opportunities  

We know that opportunities to interact with your peers are what make events special. That’s why wherever possible and using the latest technology we will allow for: 

• Q&As with the speakers on stage (for both virtual and in-person participants) 
• Networking breaks (in-person at the event venue) 
• Chat rooms (for our virtual participants) – allow for a 1-on-1 exchange with likeminded experts via an instant messenger 
• Video speed-dating (for our virtual participants) – offers you the perfect opportunity to meet other participants in 1-on-1 video calls and deep dive on a specific autonomous mobility topic. 

We are excited to meet you all next week! If you haven’t booked your pass yet, hurry up, these are the last days you can register!  

Secure your virtual or in-person ticket here.