Announcing the 2019 Autonomous Vehicle Summit Breakouts

We’re excited to see everyone on June 13 at our sold-out Autonomous Vehicles Summit. An important part of the Summit are our breakout sessions: a chance for you to hear straight from the biggest names in autonomous driving. At this year’s event, we’ll have three sets of 45-minute breakout sessions after the main stage sessions. After the breakout sessions, starting at 1 pm we’ll have food trucks on hand so you can buy lunch and stick around to network with other attendees.

The Hard Thing About Hardware

Anand Gopalan, CTO, Velodyne Lidar

Oliver Cameron, Co-Founder & CEO, Voyage

Cameron Gieda, Western Regional Technical Sales Manager, AutonomouStuff

Moderated by Aaron Tilley, The Information

The No. 1 lidar sensor maker, the No. 1 seller of programmable vehicles, and an experienced buyer of such products discuss the compute, sensor, and vehicle-related choices facing autonomous vehicle developers.

Well-Oiled Machine Learning

Oliver Cameron, Co-Founder & CEO, Voyage

Ersin Yumer, Staff Research Scientist, Uber

Sarah Tariq, Director of Computer Vision, Zoox

Moderated by Kevin McLaughlin, The Information

Three machine learning practitioners discuss the latest research as it relates to autonomous vehicles. Where do developers differ on how ML should be applied to various parts of the stack, from perception to prediction to path planning, and how should we reconcile traditional robotics approaches with neural networks?

Unwritten Rules

Timothy Papandreou, Founder & CEO, Emerging Transport Advisors

Seleta Reynolds, General Manager, Los Angeles Department of Transportation

Moderated by Cory Weinberg, The Information

What kinds of approaches are cities currently taking with self-driving passenger and delivery vehicle prototypes, and how welcoming should they be? What kinds of safety risks are they willing to accept? Should they make road infrastructure changes?

Highways and Byways

Nancy Sun, Co-Founder & CTO, Ike

Alex Rodrigues, Co-Founder & CEO, Embark

Moderated by Cory Weinberg, The Information

Autonomous semi-trailer truck developers have some advantages compared to their robotaxi counterparts. How is the field shaping up, what are realistic timelines for driverless trucks, and what are developers doing to simplify the driving problem on highways?

Automating Anything with Wheels

David Graham, CEO, Tortoise

Aubrey Donnellan, Co-Founder & COO, Bear Flag Robotics

Nan Ransohoff, Head of Product, Nuro

Moderated by Cory Weinberg, The Information

Autonomy is not just for passenger cars and semi-trailers. Meet three developers attempting to power tractors for farming; electric two-wheel scooters; and purpose-built delivery robots.

Making Sense of Laser Sensors

Scott Burroughs, Co-Founder & CEO, Sense Photonics

Gabe Sibley, Founder & CEO, Verdant Robotics

Oliver Cameron, Co-Founder & CEO, Voyage

Moderated by Aaron Tilley, The Information

There are more lidar sensor vendors than grains of sand on a beach. This panel will discuss the technical differences among them; which ones are ready for prime time; and how developers should consider testing them.

What Comes Before Robotaxis

Anthony Levandowski, Co-Founder & CEO, Pronto AI

Moderated by Amir Efrati, The Information

As robotaxis take longer to develop than expected, startups and automakers are investing more in semi-automated driving features to help human drivers. Some features already are saving lives while others are potentially endangering them. Ex-Google/Uber exec Anthony Levandowski discusses what’s coming next and how the industry is reacting to the risks that automakers such as Tesla are taking.

Driving While Insured

Ian Sweeney, General Manager, Trov Mobility

Mark Thomas, VP Marketing & Strategic Alliances, Ridecell

Annie Lien, Automated Driving Product Manager, Toyota

Moderated by Jessica Lessin, The Information

As the autonomous vehicle industry evolves, a major issue is stuck in its blind spot: insurance. In part, this is because companies are too busy building their new businesses to think critically about insurance. Meanwhile, the insurance industry lacks the tools to gather and analyze data on emerging risks. This panel will discuss how the industry is tackling emerging liability challenges, including how to assess risk, the role of insurance in building trust and what part protection will play in the autonomous vehicle industry’s future.

Smart Money

Annie Kadavy, General Partner, Redpoint Ventures

Amy Sun, Partner, Sequoia Capital

Reilly Brennan, General Partner, Trucks.vc

Moderated by Amir Efrati, The Information

Billions of dollars have flowed to autonomous vehicle developers. What investment and startup opportunities are left? What kinds of business models will emerge around such vehicles? VCs from Sequoia Capital, Redpoint Ventures and Trucks.vc will explain.

Picks and Shovels

Paul Newman, Co-Founder & CTO, Oxbotica

Luc Vincent, EVP of Autonomous Technology, Lyft

Jesse Levinson, Co-Founder & CTO, Zoox

Moderated by Kevin McLaughlin, The Information

Inside Waymo, GM/Cruise and other developers, infrastructure is by far the biggest team. This panel discusses the image labeling, simulation, data storage, and cloud computing needs of full-stack developers and what kinds of tools they are building in-house versus outsourcing to vendors.

Trust But Verify

Don Burnette, Co-Founder & CEO, Kodiak Robotics

Paul Newman, Co-Founder & CTO, Oxbotica

Michael Wagner, Co-Founder & CEO, Edge Case Research

Moderated by Amir Efrati, The Information

A big challenge across the automated vehicle field is how to measure or validate how well the software works compared to human driving. “Miles per intervention” does not cut it. Panelists discuss the various approaches currently in use, what many companies are getting wrong, and why most do not publicly discuss the topic.

We hope to see you on June 13 at our third annual Autonomous Vehicles Summit.