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Closer collaboration between Drive Sweden and Silicon Valley kicked off at Nordic Future Mobility Summit in Palo Alto

Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ongoing development in Silicon Valley in the field of transportation and mobility is in many ways affecting the Nordic societies. An essential factor in this change is the strong position of global platforms and the high and global ambitions of actors from Silicon Valley in the field of mobility. Between 13-17 January, the Nordic Future Mobility Summit was organized by Nordic Innovation House, Stanford University and Vinnova and Drive Sweden was one of the co-organizers.

About 200 participants gathered during the three days and more than 80 speakers and panelists got together to discuss future mobility, digitalization, logistics, AI and much more.

As part of the conference, a knowledge Exchange Program was arranged by Elias Arnestrand at Drive Sweden/Nordic Innovation House, focusing on Data Sharing in Public Transport and Micro Mobility. 15 key individuals from primarily public organizations in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland participated.

The purpose of this program was to facilitate knowledge-sharing between Nordic public mobility actors and public actors in the bay area. Also, the trip seeked to establish relations and understanding of the ongoing development among tech companies in Silicon Valley.

"During the tour, the delegation met with a number of stakeholders in the California ecosystem. The trip focused on data sharing and its consequences for public bodies in the Nordics and we got an insight in how policy actors in the bay area are working with data sharing," says Elias Arnestrand.

Pernilla Bremer at Swedish Transport Agency participated in the program and on the question what she has learnt and brings back to Sweden she answers, apart from new knowledge, will bring new perspectives and contacts.

"Micromobility and data sharing are areas where we really need more knowledge, and it is important to experience how it looks in practice in a country that are ahead of us in these questions. That we also could discuss this with other Nordic countries at the same time gave yet another dimension."

In connection to the conference, it was announced that Drive Sweden is now a partner in Nordic Innovation House.

For Vinnova, mobility is a prioritized area. A lot of new knowledge is being developed from Silicon Valley, for example when it comes to AI and digitalization, but also via the tech-giants based in the area. This affects us as individuals on a daily basis, also when it comes to mobility.

"We work with stimulating innovation and cooperation between Sweden and Silicon Valley, which is why we are very glad to see that Drive Sweden, which is the leading innovation environment in Sweden on mobility, choose to connect even closer to Nordic Innovation House. We look forward to even more joint activities in the future," says Inger Gustafsson,  Head of Vinnova in Silicon valley and visiting scholar at Stanford University.

"Our membership gives our members, apart from and enormous network and valuable contacts, access to the Nordic Innovation House office if they are on temporary visits. There are co-workingspaces both in San Fransisco and Palo Alto," says Sofie Vennersten, Program director for Drive Sweden.