‘A Vision of the Future’: Autonomous Vehicles

“Self-driving cars will enable car-sharing even in spread-out suburbs. A car will come to you just when you need it. And when you are done with it, the car will just drive away, so you won’t even have to look for parking.” ~Sebastian Thrun, founder Google X and ex-head of Google’s AV team.

“The shift toward the electrical vehicles in the U.S got another boost from President Biden.” ~NY Times, August 6, 2021.

A vision of the future is now becoming a reality.

But the question still remains: is this an ambitious goal - of having half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. being electric by the end of the decade? Will there be road and related infrastructure to really support autonomous vehicles?

This topic goes beyond the autonomous vehicles hype and is far more complex; everyone needs to understand the possibilities and potential pitfalls associated with this.

- What is the difference between an electric car and an autonomous one?

- Will people buy AVs? Can we afford them?

- How will this solve climate change, will it?

- Can the country’s power grid handle the load?

- How do we address potential job losses in the auto and related industries?

There are many more issues at hand.

And most importantly, how will all this affect you – the people, the businesses, and the entrepreneurs? What should you be planning for, where are the potential opportunities? How do you get ready for this major shift?

Join the discussion with Dr. Rahul Razdan. He is an expert and thought leader in the Autonomous Vehicle Industry; leading the research effort on AVs at Florida Polytechnic University. Rahul is a seasoned scientist and business executive who has had significant roles in the world of academia, startups, and Fortune 500 companies. In corporate roles, he has successfully built startups in areas such wireless power, machine learning, and low-power electronics design. Today, he leads the Raztech Research Institute, a technology based research institute which incubates ideas at the intersection of technology and society. Active projects for the institute include avvc.net in autonomous vehicles, nextgenedu.net in STEM education, and anew-da.com in EDA for long life cycle products. Dr. Razdan writes a column on transportation in Forbes, has been on EPSNews for Long Lifecycle Design, and had done a Ted Talk on education. He has a BS and MS from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD from Harvard University.

The discussion on this compelling subject with Dr. Rahul Razdan will be led by Satish Kambalimath, TiE Austin charter member, Founder and CEO of Predecir.