Celebrating International Women’s Day
To celebrate International Woman’s Day, we are shining a spotlight on some of the remarkable women who are making waves in the automotive industry.
In this piece, we are highlighting five inspirational talks from women who have graced the physical, and virtual, stage at our previous Future of Technology Series events.
Baroness Brown is a British engineer by trade, a crossbench Peer, member of the House of Lords European Union Select Committee and Vice Chair of the Committee on Climate Change amongst other titles.
Hear her powerful presentation entitled ‘Look at The Big Picture’, where she discussed how urgently we need to decarbonise transport in the UK.
I don’t want to talk to you about ‘how low can we go?’ but rather how we get to zero emissions. It’s a serious challenge but we have to get there – there’s no maybe about it. This is will be a big challenge for those who think the answer is only alternative fuels and combustion engines.
Lucy Shenton currently works as an Engagement Manager and Cyber Risk Expert and has spent several years consulting on securing the transport industry.
The transport industry offers a really interesting challenge, because we are seeing this merging of the information technology world and the operational technology world. Where traditionally we would have systems where they needed simple binary on and off switches and systems in order to control them, we are now seeing them being connected to the internet, which is creating a myriad of interesting challenges . . .
Hear her discuss the potential cyber-challenges for autonomous vehicles and what the future may hold for intelligent transport systems:
Imogen Pierce is Head of Strategy and Experience at Arrival, a start-up focused on creating zero-emission mobility solutions.
I didn’t think I could ever be excited about a bus, and definitely not excited about a van. However, I think that particularly in the last year, we have shown that these vehicles are very integral to how people interact with space, how people interact with community and how people have access to goods and services at a reasonably low cost.
In our latest Future of Technology event, Imogen shared a start-up OEM perspective of future urban delivery vehicles:
Johanna Kriisa has worked extensively in the automotive industry on a global level and recently co-founded a start-up called Fluō, which seeks to re-invent urban mobility.
During our Future of Technology event, which focused on how changes in shopping habits are affecting our road to net-zero, Johanna shared some key insights from a consumer perspective.
The clear trend among customers is that they care how sustainable brands are today . . . customers will look critically now at what organisations do and choose the brands that correspond with their values. I would encourage all of you to embrace this as it allows you to differentiate between price and product on a more emotional level with customers.
Konstanze Scharring is Director of Policy and Government Affairs at The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd (SMMT). Her work involves ensuring the UK takes a lead in the global shift to low-carbon vehicles.
The ambition is for all cars to be effectively zero emission by 2040. Talking on behalf of the manufacturing side of the UK automotive industry, we need to get a grip and work around challenges to make this happen. This is what we will continue to work on, Brexit or not.
Watch her share the effects that Brexit will have on UK Automotive Policy: