In the beginning of March 2024, Nordic and US decision-makers gathered in Silicon Valley to discuss innovation and collaboration at Bifrost Summit 2024. This third annual summit focused on AI and sustainable cities. These topics were discussed in various seminars, workshops and panels involving stakeholders and experts. Future Mobility was a partner to Bifrost Summit, which meant being involved in the making of the program as well as contributing with speakers to two workshops.
Jessica Alba, co-chair of the Future Mobility Advisory Board moderated a panel discussion “Decarbonizing transportation in cities”, which included Maria Oscott, also a member of the Advisory Board.
In another session addressing energy systems and AI, Hans Pohl the Program Director of Future Mobility was on the panel together with Jasna Tomic from Calstart, among others.
As with so many conferences, the main benefits of Bifrost were probably gained outside the meeting rooms with so many relevant and collaboration-oriented people being present. Future Mobility made many new connections, which now will be further developed towards potential innovation collaborations between the United States and Sweden.
One theme for Future Mobility became autonomous vehicles. The Future Mobility Advisory Board visited Pony.ai and enjoyed test rides. A very fruitful discussion about the status of the technology and potential pilots in Sweden took place. Parts of the board also managed to ride the driverless Waymo taxis in San Francisco. Even though the introduction of self-driving vehicles has been a bit slower than expected when this trend gained traction a decade ago, the experiences from these encounters indicate that driverless vehicles might soon be found in large quantities on the streets.