Advancing Innovation in a Virtual World
The 2020-2021 Florida Automated Vehicles Summit was held virtually in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing together leaders across transportation, technology, and public policy in a fully digital format. Despite the shift, the Summit continued to serve as a critical platform for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and forward-thinking discussion.
Through a series of virtual sessions and speaker engagements, participants explored the evolving role of automated and connected vehicle technologies, infrastructure readiness, and the path toward future deployment. The event demonstrated the resilience of the industry and its continued momentum during a time of global uncertainty.
Speaker Series
The virtual archive centered on a four-part speaker series that kept the FAV audience connected between the 2019 Miami summit and the 2021 return to an in-person Orlando program.
The series moved across market outlook, logistics technology, autonomous-product leadership, and policy strategy.
Summit Recordings
FAV Speaker Series with Ali Vahabzadeh and Jason Shaffer, February 25th, 2021
FAV Speaker Series with Dan Chu, Chief Product Officer, Waymo, March 25th, 2021
FAV Speaker Series with Matthew Lipka and Marc Scribner, April 22, 2021
The summit shifted online during the COVID-19 pandemic while keeping policy and technology conversations active.
Archived sessions ran from the December 2020 Adam Jonas program through the April 2021 policy conversation.
The public archive names speakers from Morgan Stanley, Waymo, and the Reason Foundation among the series participants.
The year emphasized how automated and connected mobility could keep progressing through disruption.
Archive
What This Year Covered
Market Outlook
Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley opened the series with a mobility-market perspective at the end of 2020.
Autonomous Technology
The series included conversations with Ali Vahabzadeh, Jason Shaffer, and Waymo Chief Product Officer Dan Chu.
Policy Direction
Matthew Lipka and Marc Scribner closed the public list of sessions with a policy-focused conversation in April 2021.
Continuity
The virtual format kept the FAV audience connected until the in-person Orlando summit returned in late 2021.
Program
Agenda Highlights
Virtual Speaker Series
- Adam Jonas, Morgan Stanley - December 3, 2020
The series opened with Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley, giving the archive a market and investment perspective on automated mobility.
- Delivering the Efficiency Revolution with New Technology - February 25, 2021
Ali Vahabzadeh of curbFlow, Jason Shaffer of Walmart, and Edward Niedermeyer of PAVE discussed how new technology can improve operational efficiency.
- Dan Chu, Waymo - March 25, 2021
Waymo Chief Product Officer Dan Chu joined the third speaker-series program for a product and autonomy deployment conversation.
- Matthew Lipka and Marc Scribner - April 22, 2021
The final listed speaker-series session brought policy voices back into the virtual program as FAV prepared for the in-person Orlando summit later that year.
Notable Archive Details
- The 2020-2021 archive is intentionally labeled as virtual because there was no normal hotel-based summit program during the COVID-19 disruption.
- The series bridged the 2019 Miami summit and the 2021 Orlando return to demonstrations, exhibits, and in-person sessions.