5GAA officialises five new MoUs during Brussels conference

The 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) organised a conference bringing together EU representatives and the connected automotive ecosystem to the heart of Europe, to officialise its public-private partnerships with several European authorities.

Indeed, 5GAA announced extending its partnership network by signing Memoranda of Understanding with the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management, the Italian Ministry of Technological Innovation and Digitalisation, the Spanish Directorate-General of Traffic (DGT), the German Federal Highway Research Institute (BASt) and the Electronic Communication Office of Latvia (VASES). The ambition of the association is to strengthen the collaboration between industry and the public sector and to facilitate the dialogue to drive innovation in mobility and transport with these closer collaborations.

Some recognised speakers at the conference included BMW's Joachim Göthel, Senior Manager in the German automaker's ‘Project 5G Alliance', and Dino Flore who is Vice-president of Technology at Qualcomm, the US chipmaker, as well as Robert MacDougall who heads mobile operator Vodafone Enterprise's Public Policy Unit. They were joined by senior EU policymakers, including a message from Maria Koleva on behalf of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel and speech by Pearse O'Donohue, Director for Future Networks, Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, as well as national experts from the Netherlands and Spain giving their unique perspective.

“To fulfil its potential in connected and automated mobility, Europe really needs a clear policy message reinforcing its ‘technology neutral' approach in the future C-ITS regulations,” noted 5GAA's CTO and spokesperson Maxime Flament.

Automated and connected driving, intelligent driver assistance and data-driven transportation network optimisation are examples of what tomorrow's transportation will look like for people and governments.

Discussions and conclusions reached at the 5G, Igniting the Connected and Automated Mobility Revolution conference thus paint a rich picture of the work currently underway and the roadblocks and potential detours that may lie ahead. With the help of audience contributions, the event helped to chart the way for future autonomous transport that not only meets the needs of society and industry but can also make a positive contribution to meeting the global Sustainable Development Goals in terms of cleaner and safer transportation.