The future is ours!

The concentrated full-day program included some ten presentations, and also intensive networking during the breaks.

One presentation was by Peter Hafmar, CEO of Nobina Technology, about the Scandinavian premiere for self-driving buses on public roads, which took place in Kista, north Stockholm, on January 24. Later this year, this will be followed by a trial with self-driving buses in the new Barkarbystaden neighborhood. And Sigma Dolins, project manager at RISE Viktoria, supplements this picture of the rapid development of self-driving buses by presented the trial due to start later this spring at two locations in Gothenburg.

Mats Fägerhag, CEO of the Geely-owned vehicle development company CEVT, and Stefan Tilk, CEO of the electric car manufacturer NEVS in Trollhättan, each gave a presentation. It emerged that CEVT’s Chinese owner consistently works with parallel development, where the same assignment is sent to two organizations.

Emilia Liljeström, COO of the tech firm Einride, described the new vehicle class created by the company that is adapted to meet the environmental requirements of the future, including electric drive and autonomous driving technology. She later stated that the broad benefit with the Drive Sweden network is to meet up and to understand what the technology enables and how to collaborate across boundaries.

“Furthermore, it is about the greater purpose we all share, which is to create a sustainable and more environmentally friendly society,” she says.

Jan Hellåker, program manager for Drive Sweden, ended the day by stating that Sweden is at the forefront, in a global perspective, when it comes to the overall development of the mobility of the future. He agreed with KPMG, which recently wrote that the top-five countries are the Netherlands, Singapore, the US, Sweden and the UK. The unique, Swedish cooperation model involves industry, academia and the state, authorities and regions, which is a prerequisite for success in this transition.

“The future is ours! Keep up the good work,” concluded Hellåker.

Drive Sweden is a strategic innovation program for transport that was started, at the initiative of the government, in 2015. Tomorrow’s transports – both passenger and freight – is about creating new, smart solutions through automation, digitization and shared resources. This in turn provides the conditions to use new business models to create a sustainable transport society.

Drive Sweden is financed by Vinnova, Formas and the Swedish Energy Agency. Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg hosts the program.

Highlights and interviews from the day

Presentations

• ABC - Birger Löfgren
• Autopiloten - Peter Hafmar
• CEVT - Mats Fägerhag
• Connected traffic signals - Johan Östling
• Drive Sweden - Jan Hellåker
• Drive Sweden Innovation Cloud - Stefan Myhrberg
• Einride - Emilia Liljeström
• KOMPIS - Anna Pernestål Brenden
• Logistics - Sofie Vennersten
• Policy Lab - Maria Schnurr
• Roadmap - Maria Schnurr
• S3 - Sigma Dolins
• Sustainable Mobility Services - Marie Ljungberg
• Swedish AD regulations - Kristina Andersson
• Volvo Group - Torbjörn Holmström