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The Nordic Future Mobility Summit in Silicon Valley, January 15-17, aimed to create a bridge between the Nordics and Silicon Valley in the field of future mobility through creative solutions. During three days events and seminars on various topics in the area of future mobility were arranged.

Ingrid Skogsmo, Senior research advisor at SAFER, moderated a morning session about Vision Zero. The event gathered over 80 participants and the delegates listened to two interesting panel discussions in which four reputable representatives from community actors, industry and research participated.

Matts-Åke Belin from the Swedish Transport Administration who organized the panel, set the stage by presenting the zero vision. Today, there are zero visions in many countries, regions and cities. Matts-Åke therefore proposes that we talk about Zero visions, and also presented the idea of "Personal vision zero" - each individual actually has their own zero vision – no one accepts to put their lives at risk in traffic.

The summit was organized by Stanford University Wallenberg Research Link, Nordic Innovation House, and Vinnova. In total, about 200 participants participated in the various activities which, in addition to Vision Zero morning, also included sessions on The Future of Logistics, Data Sharing in Public Transport and Micro Mobility, Towards a culture of trust and collaboration around future mobility systems, Internationalization: Research, Education and Innovation. Participants were also invited to a world premiere of Drive Sweden's feature film "Life on Wheels".

In the first panel participated:

Jonathon Eshani, Assistant Professor,
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Megan Wier, Program Director,
San Francisco Department of Public Health, City & County of San Francisco

Offer Grembek, Co‐Director,
Safe Transportation Research and Education Center at Berkeley University

Peter Kronberg, Safety Director,
Volvo Group, Chief Technology Office

In this panel the panelists discussed about the knowledge gap to reach the Vision Zero and suitable next steps. Also, how well does, for example San Francisco, express its needs for the research community and industry to support the vision zero initative? Equity - fairness aspects in having access to road safety solutions and new initiatives were also discussed. No individual actor can move on on his own, enhanced cooperation is needed.

The subsequent panel debated about the role of new technology solutions and how automated driving can solve the traffic safety problems that exist today. Through already introduced driver support systems, it has been possible to show benefit and, if properly designed, higher levels of automation can likely also contribute to increased road safety. It is in continued collaboration between the various actors as well as by taking advantage of each other's experiences in e.g. the US and Sweden, which we can move on towards the vision. SAFER was cited as a good example of how this could be done by the panelists, who were:
John Milton, Director of Transportation Safety and Systems Analysis, Washington State Department of Transport

Azra Habibovic, Senior Researcher,
RISE and SAFER Vehicle and Traffic Research Centre at Chalmers

Jonas Fenn, Strategic Business Developer,
Volvo Cars Technology

Mark R. Rosekind, Chief Safety Innovation Officer, Zoox, Inc.;
former Administrator for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration