MD7 Director of Business Development Lew Cox will moderate Wireless West Conference’s first panel discussion to bring autonomous vehicles to the forefront of the wireless industry on its main stage April 28 at 10:45 a.m., at the San Diego Marriott Marquis. The panel titled, “The Road to Autonomous Vehicles” will feature topic experts including:
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- Martha DeGrasse – wireless industry analyst, writer, and researcher for Automotive Edge Computing Consortium (AECC);
- April Bolduc – President of S Curve Strategies, specializing in the development of electric vehicle (EV) programs for utilities, municipalities, states, and advanced technology companies;
- Umer Ahmed – Market Manager, Engineering and Operations for T-Mobile; and
Anand Nandakumar– CEO of Halo, an early leader in driverless and autonomous car technology, serving the global $2.5 trillion-dollar transportation market with an innovative, on-demand car-sharing model.
“We want our main stage to cover a technology topic that involves the entire industry and will impact everyone,” said MD7 General Counsel Lynn Whitcher, who has served on the Wireless West Conference planning committee since 2016. MD7 is a long-standing sponsor of Wireless West.
“Autonomous vehicles are definitely here, at least to SAE Level 2, with Level 3 and 4 already moving through the pipeline,” Lew Cox, moderator for the autonomous vehicle panel, said. “We are on the road. How far and how fast we go depends on several factors.”
MD7 is helping several electric vehicle charging station companies break ground as they expand worldwide. “We will see more than 3,000 new charging stations open in the United States in 2022 and 25,000 are planned for 2023. Despite this, the number of public charging stations in the U.S. is less than half of the number in Europe—about 115,000 compared to around 300,000. We clearly have a ton more investment to make the race for renewable transportation more competitive,” Cox said.
“For mobile network operators, the connected car could represent the biggest single opportunity since the smartphone,” Martha DeGrasse, wireless industry analyst, said. “But capitalizing on this opportunity will require operators to cooperate with one another, and coordinate with other members of the ecosystem, including automakers, network equipment providers, silicon vendors, and cloud service providers. Infrastructure service providers have a vital role to play as well since massive network densification will be required to support autonomous vehicles.”
Wireless West’s primary goal is to educate the wireless community and provide a forum where industry professionals can come together for two days of shared learning and networking. Wireless West attendees will have the opportunity to attend small breakout sessions covering a broad range of industry topics. Other panels hosted by top wireless executives and thought leaders throughout the industry.