Plug and Play and STMicroelectronics co-hosted a two-day event with more than 150 industry players to talk about the main trends of the Future of Mobility: Autonomous Driving, Electrification, Intelligent Vehicle / Connectivity, Sustainability, and Digital Twins.
Plug and Play and STMicroelectronics have teamed up to host an event focusing on the future of mobility. The event brought together leading industry players – including OEMs, suppliers, and startups – who gathered to share their solutions on the hottest topics in the automotive industry. Among them Marelli, HPE Coxa, Sabelt, CLN Group, Ferrari, Bosch, DXC Technology, Motherson, and Jaguar Land Rover.
“This is the first time Plug and Play has brought together three of their European offices to host a mobility event,” said Saeed Amidi, Founder and CEO of Plug and Play. “We wanted to show the world the power of our ecosystem. By bringing together the strongest and brightest minds in the automotive and mobility industry, that’s exactly what we are working towards.”
Plug and Play launched its Mobility program in Silicon Valley in 2016. Since then, in the Mobility industry alone, they have accelerated over 800 startups and partnered with over 45 corporations that are looking to bring innovation to the forefront of their business. In the past six years, they have also expanded to over five different locations around the world. Two of those locations include Stuttgart, Germany (named STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play) and Modena, Italy (named Motor Valley Accelerator).
STARTUP AUTOBAHN powered by Plug and Play, is an open innovation platform that provides an interface between innovative tech companies and industry-leading corporations. The basis of the program is the partnership that develops between startups and corporate business units. STARTUP AUTOBAHN has cultivated over 380 projects with more than 289 startups since its founding in 2016.
Motor Valley Accelerator is the first Italian vertical accelerator related to the world of Automotive and Mobility, born from a joint initiative of the national network by CDP Venture Capital Sgr – Fondo Nazionale Innovazione, with UniCredit, and Fondazione di Modena, managed by Plug and Play and CRIT. Launched in 2021, it’s now holding its second edition, having supported a total of 16 startups with an investment and a 5-month acceleration program and created 100+ business opportunities between its 8 Corporate Partners and startups and scaleups worldwide.
Both programs represent the most advanced approach to open innovation, partnering with the leading automotive industry players and connecting them with top-notch startups from around the world. STMicroelectronics is the visionary semiconductor industry leader that partners with STARTUP AUTOBAHN and Motor Valley Accelerator, and has co-organized the Future of Mobility event in Catania, Sicily, where ST has over 4,700 employees as product design, R&D, front-end manufacturing, marketing addressing the automotive, industrial, and communications markets. In addition, Catania is the ST’s global excellence center for power electronics based on silicon and new materials (i.e., silicon carbide and gallium nitride) under STPOWER portfolio.
“Plug and Play is a key contributor to STMicroelectronics’s strategic initiatives for open innovation to make driving safer, greener, and more connected for everyone. They supported us to bring together in Catania an ecosystem of automotive leaders and innovative startups with our leading innovation initiatives on the mobility of the future,” said Alessandro Cremonesi, Executive Vice President, Chief Innovation Officer General Manager, System Research and Applications at STMicroelectronics.
Edoardo Merli, Executive Vice President ADG Power Transistor Sub-Group General Manager at STMicroelectronics shared ST’s vision on the Future of Mobility triggering a discussion moderated by Philipp Gneiting, Plug and Play Partner Success Director, for EMEA region on five main topics presented by global startups:
- Sunil Thomas, CBO at Zendar – a Sillicon Valley based startup committed to make autonomous driving safe and accessible for everyone – took an in-depth look at the autonomous driving trend, highlighting the need to shift investments towards sensors, computing and software development able to make this industry cost-effective enabling large-scale, transformative adoption;
- Electrification was the main topic covered by David Fresneau, Marketing and Business Development at Silicon Mobility – a startup from France developing solutions for smart vehicles to be energy efficient – who pointed out that smarter control, for example through their efficient real-time algorithms for energy control applications in the car, is needed to enable significant improvements in this field;
- Wallie Leung, Head of Global Business Development at Sonatus – a startup from Silicon Valley which has built a set of comprehensive, end to end solutions to help OEMs to build SDV – talked about how Intelligent Vehicle / Connectivity impact OEMs to achieve much faster time to market, higher product and operational efficiencies, and quicker response to new opportunities and challenges
- Alessandro Scuderi, Head of Communication at Ohoskin – producing the first made in Italy, bio-based material alternative to luxury leather made of oranges and cactuses, from Catania, Italy – explained on stage what Sustainability in this industry really needs to mean today: reduction of emission, a strong choice towards bio-based materials instead of animals or fossil origin ones, transition to circular economy to give new life to pre-existing materials, and above all transparency, having data sustaining sustainability;
- Digital Twins and their ability to shorten companies path towards sustainable innovation by replicating with high fidelity the behavior of an electromechanical system, was the trend presented by Francesco Toso, Co-Founder and CEO at Newtwen from Padua, Italy, a startup that develops develop digital twin on-chip software through its expertise in mathematics, physics, computer science, and engineering.
With more than 150 participants, Reverse Pitches & Inspirational Insights by the Plug and Play Mobility Platforms, multiple networking sessions connecting the global 15+ startups with industry leaders, several keynotes on the key topics that are transforming the industry, the first edition of The Future of Mobility has proven to be a not to be missed event for all those interested in the evolution of Mobility and Automotive, which appears to be safer, smarter, and greener.
SOURCE Plug and Play, CATANIA, Italy, Sept. 26, 2022