NIST Vehicle Teleoperation Forum

November 13, 2020

9:00 am Welcome: Director, NIST

Dr. Walter Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology, and NIST Director /ITL 

Director Charles Romine

Overview of NIST mission and role in the context of vehicle teleoperation.

9:10 am Vehicle Teleoperation: Vision, Opportunities, and Challenges

Tao Zhang, NIST

9:20 – 9:50 am Keynote

Michelle Avary, World Economic Forum

9:50 am - 10:50 am Session 1 - Government Panel

Focus: Discuss related work at government agencies and potential roles of government agencies in vehicle 

teleoperation going forward.

Moderator: Chris Greer, NIST

1. Elise Feldpausch Michigan DOT

2. Frank Konieczny US Air Force

3. Wim Vandenberghe 5G Blueprint Consortium

4. Raj V. Ponnaluri Florida DOT

5. Ed Griffor NIST

10:50 AM – 10:55 AM BREAK - 5 mins

10:55 am – 2:00 pm Session 2 - Industry Panel: Vehicle Teleoperation Today & Tomorrow

Focus: Discuss importance and use cases of vehicle teleoperation (not just for today but also tomorrow), state of 

the art, where teleoperation will go next, and key challenges to be addressed. 

10:55am-11:55am: Session 2a 

Moderator: Tao Zhang, NIST

1 Scott McCormick CVTA

2 Elliot Katz Phantom Auto

3 Amit Rosenzweig Ottopia

4 Hariharan Krishnan General Motors

5 Maarten Sierhuis Nissan

11:55am-12:55pm: Session 2b

Moderator: Seval Oz, Oz Consulting

1 Manuel Zapata Verizon

2 Walter Sullivan Designated Driver

3 Syed Hosain Aeris

4 Bert Kaufman Zoox

5 Mansoor Nasir Hyundai Mobis

12:55 pm - 1:00 pm BREAK 5 mins
1:00pm - 2:00 pm: Session 2c

Moderator: Scott McCormick, Connected Vehicle Trade Association

1 Roger Berg Denso

2 Rajive Joshi RTI

3 Mitchell M. Rohde Quantum Signal AI (Ford)

4 Seval Oz Oz Consulting

2:00 pm – 2:25 pm LUNCH BREAK 25 mins

2:25 pm – 3:35 pm Session 3 – Vehicle Teleoperation & Safety

Focus: Discuss safety issues related to vehicle teleoperation, e.g., how to measure safety of vehicle 

teleoperation? What are the key factors that will impact teleoperation safety? What are the key issues to address 

to increase teleoperation safety?

Moderator: Richard Wallace, HWA Analytics

1 Tim Dawkins World Economic Forum (WEF)

2 Ashish Kundu Ciphense

3 Maarten Sierhuis Nissan

4 Sven Beiker Silicon Valley Mobility

5 Rajive Joshi RTI

6 Amit Rosenzweig Ottopia

3:35 pm – 6:20 pm Session 4 - Vehicle Teleoperation & Infrastructure

Focus: Discuss infrastructure issues related to vehicle teleoperation. For example, networking requirements and 

challenges, potential roles of cloud and edge computing for assisting human teleoperators today and enabling 

automated teleoperation in the future, the roles of AI for vehicle teleoperation, and potentials for off-loading 

some automated driving intelligence from the vehicles to the cloud (benefits, feasibility, and challenges). 

3:35pm-4:25pm: Session 4a 

Moderator: Robert Bohn, NIST

1 Jeffrey Schweitzer Verizon

2 Timothy Grayson DARPA

3 Tom Schaffnit USDOT Volpe National Transportation 

Systems Center

4 James Bikram Joshi NSF

4:25 – 4:30 pm 5 min break

4:30pm-5:30pm: Session 4b

Moderator: Lotfi Benmohamed, NIST

1 Walter Sullivan Designated Driver

2 Weisong Shi Wayne State University

3 Sanjay Dhawan Cerence Inc.

4 David Corman NSF

5:30pm-6:20pm: Session 4c

Moderator: Sven Beiker, Silicon Valley Mobility
1 Youssef Abdelilah American Tower

2 Chonggang Wang InterDigital

3 Richard Wallace HWA Analytics

4 Shai Magzimof Phantom Auto

6:20 pm Adjourn

Pre-recorded Session: Session 5: Vehicle Teleoperation & Standards

Focus: Discuss which areas in vehicle teleoperation will benefit from standardizations (e.g., taxonomy,

operational design domains for vehicle teleoperation? performance and safety metrics, networking requirements?

and interfaces?).

Moderator: Lisa Carnahan, NIST

1 Walter Sullivan Designated Driver

2 Stan Schneider RTI

3 Clare Mutzenich Royal Holloway, University of London

4 Sven Beiker Silicon Valley Mobility

5 Elaina Farnsworth The NEXT Education

6 Ashish Kundu Ciphense