Driving to the Future: The Case for Cellular in Automotive

On the February 9th members of the 5GAA Board traveled to Silicon Valley to introduce 5GAA and describe their joint vision of cellular communications for automotive applications. The objective of the event was to engage a diverse group representing Silicon Valley-based companies in the discussion of how the 5GAA vision may match the culture and innovation of the local ecosystem.

On this occasion, 5GAA hosted the event at the Four Season in Palo Alto, sponsored by Intel, with a panel on “Driving to the Future: The Case for Cellular in Automotive”. Panelists included Jovan Zagajac (Ford), Luke Ibbetson (Vodafone Group), Walter Weigel (Huawei), Thierry Klein (Nokia) and Michael Faerber (Intel), and the discussion was moderated by Jim Misener(Qualcomm).

The audience included representatives from automotive OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers with offices in Silicon Valley, chipmakers, telecommunications research and development personnel, transportation providers, university researchers and several startups.

The discussion was productive and covered a wide range of questions and answers which needed to be addressed. Also discussed was the value of cellular for the automotive and transportation value chain, 3GPP’s release of 14 features and how they are able to transform them to 5G. Also explored in the meeting was how invention and innovation are part of both the panelist and the audience group. The event was well attended by over 40 people who contributed to a very lively debate, it was the first event of its kind organized by 5GAA.