Building Better with Brandon Bartneck

Latest Episodes:

#93 – Larry Burns | Autonomy Automobility, Redefining Mobility & The Quest to Build the Driverless Car Mar 13, 2022

Show notes

Larry Burns is a pioneer in the electrified and automated vehicle space, highly successful industry veteran, and author of Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car – And How It Will Reshape Our World.

Key topics in this conversation include:

The potential for automobility to improve people’s lives through safer, more sustainable, more effective, and more accessible transportation
Why Autonomy is the best book I’ve read on the topic of future mobility
The benefit of a two-mode assisted/automated driving solution
The power of the skateboard platform for electrification, and how Larry and his team at GM demonstrated this approach two decades ago
The future – merging transportation with information and communication

Links:

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/larryburns
Larry’s website: https://www.lawrencedburns.org/
Autonomy book: https://www.amazon.com/Autonomy-Quest-Driverless-Car-Reshape/dp/0062661124

Larry’s Bio:

Larry Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. His current clients include Goodyear, Kitson & Partners, Niron Magnetics and Namoramic Laboratories. Larry served as General Motors Corporate Vice President of Research & Development and Planning from 1998-2009. Between 2010 and 2021, Larry was a consultant to Waymo (Google Self-Driving Cars), Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan, Director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University, and an advisor to several major companies.

Full bio: Larry Burns extended bio

Future of Mobility:

The Future of Mobility podcast is focused on the development and implementation of safe, sustainable, and equitable mobility solutions, with a spotlight on the people and technology advancing these fields.

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

#92 - Michael Richter | Scantinel - FMCW LiDAR: The Next Step Function Improvement in Sensing Technology Mar 06, 2022

Show notes

Dr. Michael Richter is Scantinel’s Commercial Managing Director in charge of strategy, finance, investor relations, and sales & marketing

Key topics in this conversation include

The difference between frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) LiDAR and time of flight (TOF) LiDAR
How FMCW provides greater sensing range, velocity data, and object detection information
The massive potential of photonic semiconductors
The path to mass market adoption for FMCW LiDAR

Links:

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/michaelrichter
Michael’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-michael-richter-a2079268/
Scantinel Website: https://scantinel.com/
Scantinel LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/scantinel

Michael’s Bio::

Dr. Michael Richter is Scantinel’s Commercial Managing Director in charge of strategy, finance, investor relations, and sales & marketing. He has a long-lasting senior international management background in the semiconductor, sensor and high-tech industry with a successful history of formulating and implementing sustainable business plans, organizations, and techniques. Michael holds a Doctoral and Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from University of Siegen in Germany.

About Scantinel:

Scantinel Photonics is a world leading FMCW LiDAR start-up company in Ulm, Germany. Incubated in the global optics leader Carl Zeiss AG in 2016, Scantinel spung off as an independent company in 2019 and is backed by ZEISS Ventures and Scania Growth Capital.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

#91 – Pete Bigelow | Shift & Automotive News - Automated Driving, Electrification, Sustainable Aviation & the Role of Journalism Feb 27, 2022

Show notes

Pete Bigelow is a senior reporter at Automotive News in Detroit, where he covers the convergence of transportation and technology.

Key topics in this conversation include

The responsibility for media to accurately present complex technical topics
The current state of automated driving technology and how this technology is likely to progress
How Pete decides which topics to cover
The intersection of technology, public perception, and regulation
The future for more effective and sustainable aviation

Links:

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/petebigelow
Pete’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-bigelow-a947263/
Pete’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/petercbigelow
Shift podcast: https://www.autonews.com/shift-podcast-mobility

About Pete:

Pete Bigelow is a senior reporter at Automotive News in Detroit, where he covers the convergence of transportation and technology. He’s the host of Shift: A Podcast About Mobility, a weekly show that features conversations with top newsmakers from across the transportation landscape. Pete’s previous work has appeared in publications like The New York Times, Popular Mechanics and Car and Driver. A one-time certified flight instructor, he’s now ground-based in southeast Michigan, where he lives with his wife, three children and dog.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

#90 – Gunnar Froh | Wunder Mobility – Shared Mobility as a Solution for Sustainable and Effective Transportation Feb 20, 2022

Show notes

Gunnar Froh is CEO & Founder of Wunder Mobility, the leading global tech and service platform for new mobility solutions.

Key topics in this conversation include

Gunnar’s background in shared asset utilization, including leading Airbnb’s international efforts
Why shared mobility is so important for developing an effective and sustainable mobility ecosystem
What it takes to develop a successful shared vehicle offering
Gunnar’s vision for a Netflix-like mobility experience
Wunder Mobility’s role enabling shared mobility companies

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/gunnarfroh
Gunnar’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunnarfroh/
Wunder Mobility website: https://www.wundermobility.com/

Gunnar’s Bio

Gunnar Froh is founder and CEO of Wunder Mobility, the international provider of software and hardware for new mobility services. Founded in 2014, the company develops a technology platform that enables companies, cities and startups to launch and scale new mobility services.

Froh joins from Airbnb, where he played a senior role in its internationalization until late 2013. Airbnb acquired Accoleo, a housing marketplace he founded in 2011. Prior to that, Froh gained experience as a consultant at McKinsey and founded the nonprofit car-sharing organization CampusCar.

In addition to his role as CEO of Wunder Mobility, Gunnar Froh is active as an angel investor in the field of mobility and sustainability. He is a member of the Innovation Advisory Board of the United Nations Population Fund and host of the Wunder Mobility Podcast.

Born in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, he completed his business studies at WHU in Germany and at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago, USA. He lives and works in Hamburg.

About Wunder Mobility

Wunder Mobility is the world’s leading provider of software and hardware for scooter, bike, moped, and car sharing. The mobility tech company provides robust and feature-rich white-label solutions that enable enterprises, startups and cities worldwide to launch and scale sharable station-based and free-floating fleets to deliver sustainable, convenient and secure mobility. Its industry-defining full-stack solution for mobility is complemented by a catalog of IoT-connected hardware built in partnership with leading manufacturers.

More than 100 customers use the Wunder Mobility platform to monitor, manage and finance shared vehicle fleets, to optimize daily operations and add comfortable on-demand mobility to existing transport modes in more than 900 cities across six continents.

The global Wunder Mobility team, which encompasses more than 40 nationalities, consists of veterans from the technology and mobility industry 50% of whom work in product and engineering. Wunder Mobility was founded in 2014 by Gunnar Froh. The headquarters are in Hamburg, with additional locations in Dortmund and Los Angeles.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

#89 – Trent Broberg | ACERTUS – Electric Vehicles, Home Deliveries, and Technology-enabled Logistics Feb 13, 2022

Show notes

Trent Broberg is CEO of ACERTUS, the only tech-enabled automotive logistics marketplace to move, store, recondition, title & register finished vehicle.

Key topics in this conversation include

The impact of electrification on finished vehicle logistics
How emerging OEMs home deliveries impact deliveries
The importance of end user education for electrified and automated vehicles
Building a positive culture and leading effectively

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/trentbrogerg
Trent’s LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentbroberg/
Home Delivery is Here to Stay! Customers Demand Remote Options
Ensuring Excellent Home Deliveries: Walk-throughs, White-Glove Service and More

Trent’s Bio

As the CEO of ACERTUS, Trent Broberg is hyper focused on expanding the company’s possibilities and creating a new era of growth. He is dedicated to creating technology enabled solutions for ACERTUS and the transportation industry at large. Prior to joining ACERTUS in March 2021, Trent served as the Chief Operating Officer at Truckstop.com. Before serving in that role, he held senior executive positions at Swift Transportation, DB Schenker and Real Time Freight. Drawing from more than 15 years of experience in the transportation realm, he uses his industry knowledge and leadership skills to carve out high levels of growth and develop profitability. Trent holds a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from Arizona State University

About ACERTUS
ACERTUS is the only tech-enabled automotive logistics marketplace to move, store, recondition, title & register finished vehicles. This start-to-finish, omnichannel offering is driven by a transformative combination of tech, people & expertise turning once complicated logistics into a competitive advantage.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

#88 – Anne Schneider | RR.AI - from Autonomous Tactical Vehicles to Trucks, Buses & More Feb 06, 2022

Show notes

Anne Schneider is the Vice President of Autonomous Trucking at RR.AI | Robotic Research.

Key topics in this conversation include

What it takes to deliver an autonomous kit for military applications, assuming no comms, no prior data, and no infrastructure
Robotic Research’s Leader Follower program
RR.AI’s successful push into commercial applications, including forestry, mining, and various on-road applications
Why they decided now was the time to raise significant capital
Similarities and differences comparing autonomous trucks and autonomous tactical vehicles

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/anneschneider
Anne's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annerachelschneider/
RR.AI website: https://rr.ai/

Anne’s Bio

Anne Schneider is the Vice President of Autonomous Trucking at RR.AI | Robotic Research. With over twelve years of experience in robotic systems development, Ms. Schneider has extensive expertise in system/software architecture design, sensor processing, and systems integration. During her tenure at Robotic Research, Ms. Schneider has worked as the Technical and/or Project Lead for a variety of government ground vehicle robotics programs, including the Autonomous Ground Resupply and Expedient Leader Follower programs, which rapidly produced and issued 60 Leader/Follower enabled autonomous trucks to soldiers for a multi-year Operational Technical Demonstration. She is currently leading RR.AI's push into the commercial autonomous trucking market.

About RR.AI
RR.AI is the commercial division of Robotic Research––a global technology company that has delivered autonomous mobility and robotics solutions for more than two decades. RR.AI’s vehicle-agnostic, full-stack autonomy kit (AutoDrive®) is a proven autonomous driving system for both on and off-highway environments and is trusted by industry-leading OEM partners. It is uniquely suited to provide an end-to-end, 360° autonomous driving solution for commercial transportation that spans across complex operational design domains (ODDs).

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

#87 – David Byron | Sundberg-Ferar –Walking Cars & Designing Products that Make an Impact Jan 30, 2022

Show notes

David Byron is Director of Innovation Strategy at Sundberg-Ferar.

Key topics in this conversation include

The importance of thoughtful product design if we want to make an impact
Why we need to deeply understand the problem at-hand before developing solutions
Applying expertise to new application segments
How Sundberg-Ferar developed the walking ELEVATE Ultimate Mobility Vehicle for Hyundai
What makes a product appealing

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/davidbyron
David's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-j-byron-6727b54/
Sundberg-Ferar website: https://sundbergferar.com/
Sundberg-Ferar CES trend report: https://app.box.com/s/df9g6ocbkdrudqsbzc3chkfj4ndgn2lm
Mobility Genesis: https://sundbergferar.com/mobilitygenesis/

David’s Bio

David’s passion for design and cars led him to the Motor City where he graduated from CCS in Transportation Design. He spent his early career at GM and ASC before becoming Lead Designer at Saleen where he penned the 2008 S5S Raptor supercar and 2010 Saleen S281. David then jumped from sports cars to sports equipment when he joined New Balance’s hockey and lacrosse brand, Warrior, where he lead the helmet design team. David has a strong ability to edit, communicate and execute concepts that connect on an emotional level while delivering real world solutions. His diverse background provides a wide perspective when tackling the vast array of design challenges experienced at Sundberg-Ferar. He stays active in the art community teaching design courses at CCS and has judged multiple times at the National Fine Arts Festival.

Sundberg-Ferar
We design innovative, beautiful products that make people’s lives better. That’s how our work propels companies in new mobility, consumer, and commercial product markets. We consider everything, from the needs of our clients to the ideal user experience, and after nearly 90 years of design, we know what it takes to elevate solutions from purely functional to exceptional.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

Music credit: Slow Burn Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

#86 – Rainer Küngas | Stargate Hydrogen - Decarbonization of Locomotives & The Role of Hydrogen Jan 23, 2022

Show notes

Key topics in this conversation include

The challenge of decarbonizing locomotive applications
Rainer’s background in electrolysis
Why fuel cells are ideal for shunting locomotives
Stargate’s ongoing project to retrofit 40 diesel locomotives

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/rainerkungas
Rainer's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainer-k%C3%BCngas-6133a41b/
Stargate Hydrogen website: https://stargatehydrogen.com/
Stargate Hydrogen LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stargate-hydrogen/
Operail project coverage: https://www.h2-view.com/story/stargate-hydrogen-to-retrofit-40-diesel-locomotives-to-fuel-cell-power-in-estonia/

Rainer’s Bio:

Rainer is Stargate Hydrogen’s Chief Technology Officer, applying his advanced degrees in Electrochemistry and Chemical Engineering to drive the development of the company’s turn-key electrolysis solutions. He has extensive knowledge and experience in fuel cells and electrolysis stacks, including materials, physical and electrochemical characterization, lifetime limiting factors and system considerations.

About Stargate:

Stargate Hydrogen offers turn-key electrolysis solutions for the production of green hydrogen with renewable energy. The company designs, implements and maintains systems from hydrogen production and compression to storage and dispensing. Stargate also provides solutions for retrofitting freight locomotives with a zero-emission hydrogen powertrain.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

Music credit: Slow Burn Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

#85 – Shiva Bhardwaj | Pitstop – Predictive Maintenance & Unlocking the Power of Data Jan 16, 2022

Show notes

Shiva Bhardwaj is the Founder and CEO at Pitstop, who is disrupting the automotive industry by unlocking vehicle data to create a more efficient, safer, and cleaner future.

Key topics in this conversation include

The keys to effective predictive maintenance
Examples of how effective use of data can help fleet owners
Maximizing vehicle uptime
Determining whether data can be trusted

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/shivabhardwaj
Shiva’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivabhardwaj/?originalSubdomain=ca
Pitstop website: https://pitstopconnect.com/fleet/?utm_source=futurem

Shiva’s Bio:

Shiva Bhardwaj is the Founder and CEO at Pitstop. While earning a degree in Electrical & Computer Engineering from UWaterloo, Shiva spent time working at NVIDIA and Blackberry. Shiva started his entrepreneurship journey by inventing ShockLock which brought a safe, simple and cost-effective hardware solution to the automotive world. His largest and most recent accomplishment is Pitstop, a predictive maintenance platform for the automotive industry founded in 2015. It has since secured investments from Sensata, Verizon, Ripple Ventures & BDC to name a few and is partnered with some of the biggest players in the industry. Pitstop's proprietary algorithm - a unique blend of embedded automotive domain knowledge, time-series data, AI technology and machine learning - provides customers with the ability to gain insight from their data in order to save costs, reduce downtime and recalls and increase safety. Shiva has also been recognized as the Vaughan Entrepreneur of the Year & SEMA 35 Under 35.

About Pitstop:

Pitstop is disrupting the automotive industry by unlocking vehicle data to create a more efficient, safer, and cleaner future. Combining multiple data sources with leading AI and ML technology, Pitstop generates actionable insights for customers to improve overall operations by reducing costs, GHG emissions and increasing safety.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

Music credit: Slow Burn Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

#84 – Doron Frenkel | Driivz - The Operating System for EV Charging & Improving our Power Ecosystem Jan 09, 2022

Show notes

Key topics in this conversation include

The role of software in enabling an efficient and effective EV charging system
How fleets and charging providers can solve their biggest problems
The potential for auxiliary battery packs and vehicle-to-grid solutions for improving our power ecosystem
Driivz’s role in the transition towards more sustainable transportation
How Doron works to lead Driivz as a purpose-driven company

Links

Show notes: http://brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/doronfrenkel
Doron’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/doronfrenkel/
Driivz website: http://www.driivz.com.
Driivz blog: https://driivz.com/blog/

Doron’s Bio:

Doron Frenkel is the Founder and CEO of Driivz. He is an experienced entrepreneur with over 25 years’ international management experience in the EV charging, telecommunications and fleet industries. Prior to Driivz, Doron was co-founder and CEO of We!Secure and before that he held the position of GM of Israeli operations at Sphera. As a Director at Amdocs (NYSE:DOX), Doron led business relationships worth hundreds of millions dollars with top customers such as Nextel and T-Mobile.

About Driivz:

Driivz is the leading global software supplier to EV operators and service providers, accelerating the plug-in EV industry's dynamic and continuous transformation. The company's intelligent, cloud-based platform spans EV charging operations, energy management, advanced billing capabilities and driver self-service tools. Based in Tel Aviv, Israel, Driivz's team of EV experts serve customers in more than 20 countries, including global industry players such as Volvo Group, EVgo, Gilbarco Veeder-Root, ElaadNL, ESB, Mer and eMobility Power. Driivz's platform manages tens of thousands of EV chargers in North America, Europe, and APAC, used by almost 1 million EV drivers.

Future of Mobility:

linkedin.com/in/brandonbartneck/

brandonbartneck.com/futureofmobility/

Music credit: Slow Burn Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License