TC Sessions: Mobility is again, and this yr we’re bringing collectively one of the best and brightest founders, traders, engineers and specialists on the way forward for transportation for a two-day, in-person occasion May 18 and May 19 in San Mateo, California.
An on-line day will observe on May 20 to present our viewers, together with those that had been unable to attend, an opportunity to tune in on-line and catch highlights from the stay occasion, community and watch the total periods. We’re excited to announce Herbert Diess, Group CEO of the Volkswagen Group, will talk about his imaginative and prescient for the way forward for mobility throughout this online-only portion of the occasion.
TC Sessions: Mobility will function audio system on the principle stage, a bevy of startup displays, demos, networking and a stay pitch-off with a fairly candy prize. We’re excited to present a primary look of a number of the people — and autos — who shall be on our essential stage and what we plan to speak about.
Who shall be on our stage? We’re glad you’re requested. Let’s begin with two autos that haven’t had an in-person public debut but: an electrical automobile that Arrival is constructing for Uber and the custom-built Zoox robotaxi.
Other subjects on our record for this yr embody exploring the alternatives and challenges for city air corporations and cities, the twin paths corporations are taking to commercialize autonomous automobile know-how, cybersecurity, micromobility, self-driving vans and autonomous supply.
Our visitors embody Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson, Motional CTO Laura Major, Nuro co-founder and CEO Jiajun Zhu and Waymo co-CEO Dmitri Dolgov. Then there’s Bonny Simi, who heads up air operations and folks at Joby Aviation, and Rebecca Yeung, company vp at FedEx, who’s accountable for the corporate’s robotics and autonomous automobile initiatives, in addition to cybersecurity phenoms Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek with Cruise.
Buy your normal admission or early-stage startup demo bundle at the moment earlier than costs improve. We’ve additionally just lately added two new methods to attend the occasion; Expo Only and Online Only passes ($75 and $45, respectively).
May 18
How to Land Early-Stage Funding
with Yoon Choi (Muirwoods Ventures), Mar Hershenson (Pear VC) and Gabriel Scheer (Elemental Excelerator)
Spoiler alert: Uber for X is now not a differentiator. Mobility isn’t a nascent vertical, and sector startups looking for funding ought to take into account that benefit. Investors don’t want to clarify the venture-sized alternative within the transportation trade; as an alternative they need to see contrarian development — whether or not that’s a unique approach on an outdated know-how, or profitability. TechCrunch is bringing collectively three enterprise capitalists — Yoon Choi from Muirwoods Ventures, Mar Hershenson from Pear VC and Gabriel Scheer from Elemental — to speak about their funding methods, what’s scorching and what’s not.
Turning an AV Innovation right into a Product
with Oliver Cameron (Cruise) and Laura Major (Motional)
Autonomous automobile know-how has developed from the confines of educational analysis to residing labs — aka testing on closed tracks and public roads. Now, a handful of corporations, together with Cruise and Motional, try to show their improvements right into a product that not solely has the technical functionality to navigate metropolis streets, however is approachable and straightforward for individuals to make use of. Cruise VP of product and former Voyage co-founder Oliver Cameron and Motional CTO Laura Major will cowl the technical and deployment challenges to making a product individuals can and can need to use.
Vehicle Spotlight: Zoox
with Jesse Levinson (Zoox)
Zoox first debuted its custom-built robotaxi automobile in December 2020 in a digital occasion. That automobile has been largely below wraps ever since, with testing occurring in areas away from the general public. Now, the Zoox automobile is prepared for an up-close and private debut at TC Sessions: Mobility. Zoox co-founder and CTO Jesse Levinson will talk about the automobile, the corporate’s progress and the place we would see Zoox subsequent.
How to Unlock Profits in Micromobility
with Alex Nesic (Drover AI), Janelle Wang (Acton) and speaker to be introduced
Despite the huge sums of enterprise capital that has gone into shared micromobility, the trade has but to achieve unit economics favorable sufficient to show a revenue. But it’s getting shut. We’ll sit down with Drover AI’s Alex Nesic, Acton’s Janelle Wang and one different panelist to speak concerning the new strategies, and the brand new tech, that’s being deployed to assist micromobility corporations unlock income.
The World According to Waymo
with Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo
Waymo, Alphabet’s self-driving arm, has reached important milestones just lately, from launching a robotaxi service in San Francisco to securing partnerships with legacy logistics corporations that may assist it commercialize autonomous freight. However, challenges stay on all sides — political, technological, industrial and social. Dmitri Dolgov, co-CEO of Waymo, was there from the start. As one of many founders of Google’s self-driving automobile undertaking, which started in 2009 and have become Waymo in 2016, he’ll discuss us by how far autonomy has come, and the way far it nonetheless has to go.
TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off
The trade’s brightest entrepreneurs will take the stage in entrance of a stay viewers and a panel of trade specialists, pitching revolutionary applied sciences. Founders — apply right here.
How Urban Air Fits in Cities
with Gary Gysin (Wisk Aero), Cyrus Sigari (UP.Partners) and Bonny Simi (Joby Aviation)
What will it take to execute city air mobility operations in cities? TechCrunch Mobility will sit down with Gary Gysin, president and CEO of Wisk Aero, Cyrus Sigari, co-founder and managing associate at UP.Partners, and Bonny Simi, head of air operations and folks at Joby Aviation, to debate each the challenges and alternatives within the city air mobility house and what it’s going to take to not simply launch in cities, however to really be of worth to residents.
The Path to Commercializing Autonomous Trucks
with Sterling Anderson (Aurora Innovation) and Rebecca Yeung (FedEx)
Aurora has been operating a pilot program with FedEx to haul items between Dallas and Houston through self-driving Paccar vans since September 2021. As with most different autonomous freight pilots, human security operators are current within the autos, however Aurora’s purpose is to function its vans absolutely autonomously by the tip of subsequent yr. We’ll verify in with Aurora co-founder Sterling Anderson and FedEx’s head of robotics and autonomous automobile know-how Rebecca Yeung, and talk about the pilot’s progress and implications for the way forward for autonomous trucking.
May 19
How Your Startup Should Think About Collaboration, Not Just Capital
with John Du (GM Ventures), Taylor Ogan (Snow Bull Capital) and Trina Van Pelt (Intel Capital)
The capital markets have a manner of distracting even essentially the most scrappy founders. However, as we’re beginning to see, a well-priced funding spherical isn’t a alternative for a well-oiled operation. And startups ought to assume extra about strategic alternatives, and collaborations, when giving up these coveted cap desk spots. We’re bringing collectively GM Ventures’ John Du, Snow Bull Capital’s Taylor Ogan and Intel Capital’s Trina Van Pelt to speak about partnerships within the mobility world – particularly those that you simply’re in all probability not eager about.
A Contrarian View on Deploying Autonomy at Scale
with Austin Russell (Luminar)
Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell has a distinct view of deploy autonomy at scale from different AV builders within the trade, in addition to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Lidar sits on the middle of Russell’s imaginative and prescient, however maybe not in the best way one may assume. We’ll dig into Russell’s perspective and his technique of carry autonomous automobile to the plenty at scale — with out pulling the human out of the motive force’s seat.
The New Passenger Economy
with Nils Wollny (Holoride)
In anticipation of a future the place autonomy is the norm and passengers will search stimulating leisure to interrupt up the monotony of a commute, Holoride is providing an in-car VR system that turns each automobile right into a shifting theme park. Only the Audi-spinoff isn’t ready for full autonomy to commercialize its product and produce us into the brand new passenger financial system. Holoride’s VR tech is coming to Audi automobiles as early as this summer time. We’ll sit down with Nils Wollny, co-founder and CEO of Holoride, to speak about what place VR, blockchain, NFTs and crypto forex have within the automotive house.NEED TITLE
Securing Today’s Cars and Tomorrow’s Robotaxis
with Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek (Cruise)
A brand new period in linked automobiles is right here, and with that comes new safety dangers. And then there are robotaxis and different autonomous autos. Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, undisputed leaders within the cybersecurity trade, who each maintain high safety roles at GM-backed self-driving firm Cruise, will be part of us to debate the dynamic and quickly altering realm of automotive cybersecurity.
Vehicle Spotlight: Arrival
with Avinash Rugoobur (Arrival)
Arrival introduced final yr plans to design and construct an reasonably priced, purpose-built electrical automobile for ride-hailing in partnership with Uber. Before the automobile enters manufacturing in Q3 2023, Arrival will present it off right here at TC Sessions: Mobility. Arrival President Avinash Rugoobur will discuss concerning the means of designing and hopefully producing the automobile, what the EV firm can also be engaged on and what could also be proper across the nook.
TechCrunch Mobility Pitch-off
The trade’s brightest entrepreneurs will take the stage in entrance of a stay viewers and a panel of trade specialists, pitching revolutionary applied sciences. Founders – apply right here.
Where is My Autonomous Car?
with Yanbing Li (Aurora), Saswat Panigrahi (Waymo) and Sarah Tariq (Nvidia)
When it involves shifting individuals through autonomous autos, two paths are starting to emerge: Robotaxi providers and personal autos with autonomous capabilities. Companies are shifting towards commercializing robotaxis by aiming straight for full autonomy. Automakers, alternatively, are rolling out private autos which have decrease ranges of autonomy through superior driver help techniques at the moment, with the tip purpose of slowly enhancing till they’ll provide private autos with greater ranges of autonomous performance. We’ll sit down with the AV specialists to debate the obstacles to every strategy and which could ship first at a mass scale.
