The MassTLC Future of
Transportation in Boston event brought together a crowd of techies,
entrepreneurs, city and state officials, and the public interested in current
and future transportation efforts underway and how their commute and mobility
might be affected.
Transportation in Boston event brought together a crowd of techies,
entrepreneurs, city and state officials, and the public interested in current
and future transportation efforts underway and how their commute and mobility
might be affected.
Keynote John Moavenzadeh, head of Mobility
Industries and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum
gave the audience a view of global trends in urban mobility. He was followed by Nigel Jacob, co-founder,
New Urban Mechanics for the City of Boston, who spoke about Boston and smart
mobility, the vision and action planning with public engagement embedded in the
process, Go Boston 2030 and the need to coordinate and collaborate, and touched
on autonomous vehicle testing in the Seaport.
Norm Gorin and Brad Bellows from the North South Rail Link Working Group
followed discussing the initiative to bridge the gap between the North and
South Stations.
Industries and Member of the Executive Committee at the World Economic Forum
gave the audience a view of global trends in urban mobility. He was followed by Nigel Jacob, co-founder,
New Urban Mechanics for the City of Boston, who spoke about Boston and smart
mobility, the vision and action planning with public engagement embedded in the
process, Go Boston 2030 and the need to coordinate and collaborate, and touched
on autonomous vehicle testing in the Seaport.
Norm Gorin and Brad Bellows from the North South Rail Link Working Group
followed discussing the initiative to bridge the gap between the North and
South Stations.
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John |
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Nigel Jacob |
Linda Applegate, Sarofim-Rock Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, moderated a lively panel discussing public/private partnerships and the future of urban transportation.
Panelists included:
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Stephanie Pollack – Secretary & CEO of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation
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Cathy Zhou – Uber General Manager New England Expansion
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Adrian Albus – Zipcar Director, Business Innovation & Strategy
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Jason Vazzano – CEO and co-founder of Vectorform
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Mary Rose Fissinger – Special Projects Lead at Bridj
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| Lynda Applegate, Mary Rose Fissinger, Adrian Albus, Secretary Stephanie Pollack, Jason Vassano, Cathy Zhou |
During the New Technololgy – Beyond
the Personal Automobile session participants discussed what’s in store for the
future. Mike Stanely, CEO and Founder of
TransitX showed pods that could quietly fly above traffic under a narrow track. A student team from Northeastern (Ben
Lippolis, Manny Barros and Ted Rausch) shared their Hyperloop technology, a
conceptual high-speed transportation system which pressurized capsules ride on
an air cushion thru a tube structure, and experience at the national competition
in California just a week ago. And Sasha
Hoffman, COO at Piaggio Fast Forward shared the company vision for personal
lightweight mobility while their newly launched Giti, an intelligent cargo
vehicle, navigated thru the audience delivering chocolates!
the Personal Automobile session participants discussed what’s in store for the
future. Mike Stanely, CEO and Founder of
TransitX showed pods that could quietly fly above traffic under a narrow track. A student team from Northeastern (Ben
Lippolis, Manny Barros and Ted Rausch) shared their Hyperloop technology, a
conceptual high-speed transportation system which pressurized capsules ride on
an air cushion thru a tube structure, and experience at the national competition
in California just a week ago. And Sasha
Hoffman, COO at Piaggio Fast Forward shared the company vision for personal
lightweight mobility while their newly launched Giti, an intelligent cargo
vehicle, navigated thru the audience delivering chocolates!
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Sasha Hoffman shows off the newly launched Gita
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| Kelly, Joyce and Sara have a closer look at nuTonomy’s autonomous vehicle. |
The final panel discussed Autonomous Vehicles,
moderated by Paul Schmitt, MassRobotics Director, Autonomous Vehicles and
included:
·
Karl Iagnemma
– CEO nuTonomy
Karl Iagnemma
– CEO nuTonomy
·
Sam Tolkoff –
CEO NextDroid
Sam Tolkoff –
CEO NextDroid
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Jane Lappin –
Director Government Affairs and Public Policy, Toyota Research Institute
Jane Lappin –
Director Government Affairs and Public Policy, Toyota Research Institute
· Kris Carter – Boston New Urban Mechanics
Topics of discussion included levels of automation, safety and convenience as well as testing – nuTonomy’s automated vehicle showed up for the reception.
During networking breaks and at the reception
attendees were treated to demonstrations from the following companies:
attendees were treated to demonstrations from the following companies:
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nuTonomy
nuTonomy
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Zipcar
Zipcar
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Railpod
Railpod
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Northeastern
University Hyperloop Pod
Northeastern
University Hyperloop Pod
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Piaggio Fast
Forward
Piaggio Fast
Forward
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Bridj
Bridj
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Hubway
Hubway
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Pong Robotics
Pong Robotics
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ev
Transportation Services
ev
Transportation Services
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Superpedestrian,
Inc.
Superpedestrian,
Inc.
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Zagster
Zagster
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| Brendan English, CEO of Railpod, shows his portable platform that provides a diverse suite of inspection capabilities. |
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Will Pong of Pong Robotics
shows off his personal transportation bot |
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Northeastern team pod –
arrived just in time from competition in California |
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Superpedestrian & Zagster
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