Autonomous vehicles: successes, challenges and future roadmap

Henriette is an expert in sustainable urban mobility. She is an engineer in materials and environmental sciences and holds a PhD from the Technical University of Munich (2012) on sustainable evaluation of innovation for public transportation. 

After 5 years working for the automotive industry in Germany, she specialized in the field of autonomous vehicles, focusing on the technology, business models and on the services they can provide from a societal perspective in terms of accessibility and inclusivity. For 3 years, she was Principal Investigator and led a research team in Singapore at the TUMCREATE institute on the design of autonomous vehicles. Upon returning to Europe, Henriette coordinated one of the largest projects funded by the European Commission under the Horizon 2020 program for the deployment of 70 autonomous vehicles on public roads in 15 European cities. 

Since January 2024, she has been a consultant in strategic mobility and a professor at the University of San Francisco. Henriette is also appointed as a member of TRB committees (including the Vehicle-Highway Automation committee ACP30), a member of the editorial board of the Springer book series Lecture Notes in Mobility, and continues to advise European projects and partners. 

Olivia Hu is the Head of Autonomous Trucking at Uber Freight, a leading logistics network with $18bn of Freight Under Management reshaping global logistics for shippers and carriers through solutions and services grounded in innovative marketplace technology.   

As Head of Autonomous Trucking, Olivia is responsible for the strategy, partnerships, commercial, and operational efforts of the autonomous trucking program at Uber Freight, including defining and executing the go-to-market strategy, ensuring operational success for commercial deployments, and managing business development and partnership efforts with shipper customers, carrier partners, autonomous technology providers, and truck OEMs to bring a safer, more sustainable, and more efficient vehicle to improve the resiliency of supply chains today.  

Prior to Uber, Olivia worked at a self-driving car startup, drive.ai, overseeing self-driving pilots in Texas, go-to-market and commercial applications of the technology, and scaled manufacturing partnerships with OEMs and Tier 1’s. She started her career in finance working on mortgage-backed securities at BlackRock before joining the Capital Markets team at Opendoor, an online residential real estate platform.  

Olivia graduated from Stanford University with a BA in International Relations and a Master of Public Policy. 

Raphael is a mobility and autonomous driving enthusiast. He collaborates closely with R&D departments of OEMs, Tier 1 and Universities to support autonomous driving technologies thanks to the simulation.

Gonzague currently spearheads Valeo Group's customer initiatives on the US West Coast and engages with New Mobility stakeholders. Previously, he held the position of Head of the Valeo ADAS Development Center in France, where he successfully oversaw ADAS level 2 programs. Under his leadership, the local customer project team expanded from 40 to 120 members, contributing to the delivery of numerous ADAS European programs.

Proficient in embedded electronics and international project management, Gonzague played a key role in advancing Valeo ADAS's global presence, making significant contributions in both France and Germany.

Now situated in the Bay Area, he and his team are actively introducing Valeo technologies for ADAS and electrification into the programs of new mobility players, facilitating the evolution of mobility" 

Based in Silicon Valley, Marc Amblard is the founder and managing director of Orsay Consulting. An expert in the deep transformation of the mobility space, he provides advisory services focused exclusively on autotech and the future of mobility to corporate clients, addressing electrification, autonomous driving, connectivity, shared mobility, software-defined vehicles and other related domains. Marc assists established players with startup and technology scouting services (proprietary repository with over 4000 companies located across the globe), market insight and deep dives, corporate development, strategic advisory, executive briefings and keynotes. He also advises several startups in both Silicon Valley and Europe.

Marc is deeply engaged in Silicon Valley’s mobility ecosystem, working closely with startups, VCs, emerging OEMs, tech giants, accelerators and corporate outposts. He often speaks at events and publishes a monthly newsletter on the mobility revolution as well as a detailed landscape of the global autonomous driving ecosystem. Marc leverages 30+ years in senior positions in the automotive and rail industries, in Europe and the USA. He received a masters in mechanical engineering from Arts et Métiers in Paris, France and an MBA from the University of Michigan.