Autonomous Vehicles: from self-driving cars to drones

With the rise of AI and automation, the way we travel, work and interact changes every day and visionaries are already imagining the cities of the future.

Self-driving car companies like JLR and Waymo promise a safer and easier way to get around. In the meantime, the UK government is aiming at bringing fully-autonomous-vehicles to the UK roads by 2021 and a number of companies have already started taking their cars to the public roads for trials.

Similarly, the skies are welcoming UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles), for applications ranging from agriculture to public safety and transport. According to PwC, drones could add £42bn to the UK GDP by 2030 and this technology is one of the « Essential Eight » that matters most over the next 3 to 5 years.

So, are we really there yet? And what does the future holds for autonomous vehicles and us?

Join our awesome speakers and the Pimp Your Tech team for our last event of the year in the Tableau Offices on the 5th of December to pimp your AV knowledge!

6 pm: Arrival and networking

6:30-7pm: Ellie Wooldridge: Human Factors Specialist from the Transport Systems Catapult. Driverless Cars, People and Society: The presentation will explore the benefits that driverless cars and automated technologies can provide for people and society. Whilst, outlining some of the tricky steps and considerations we must acknowledge to make these utopian visions a reality. The presentation will touch on a few case studies from some of the recent and current research activities in the UK.

7pm-7:30pm: Stephen Fendyke, Sensor Team Lead at FiveAI. Transforming Europe’s cities: An Introduction to FiveAI. FiveAI is using the power of autonomy to transform Europe’s cities, for everyone. The business is bringing together the best minds in AI, research and engineering to deliver a shared, fully autonomous transport service for Europe’s cities and expects the benefits to be huge and wide-ranging. Stephen Fendyke, FiveAI’s sensor team lead, joins us to introduce the company’s mission and tech, and to share ways in which you can help shape the future of transport.

7:30-8pm: Mathieu Johnsson, CEO & Co-Founder at Marble Aerospace. Getting drones through the Trough of Disillusionment: Unmanned aircraft are meant to disrupt data collection, logistics and transportation. Yet after 5 years of hype, the timelines are slipping, former poster child startups are closing down, and 70% of the market still belongs to military applications. Mat, CEO of Marble, a startup that provides large scale maritime surveillance using swarms of high speed electric aircraft flying 24/7, will discuss his views on the industry and how we might go through the Trough of Disillusionment.

8pm-9pm: Networking - Drinks and Food provided

This MeetUp is sponsored by Tableau and the Transport Systems Catapult.