Automated Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities

Ioannis Kanellakopoulos, PhD of Oraton Consulting

Tue, Oct 11 2016, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm PDT              Automated Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities 1


Building on the previous month’s CNSV talk on Automated Vehicles, Ioannis will provide an overview of the challenges that come with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and self-driving vehicles, as well as the potential opportunities in dealing with these challenges.

Almost everyone who has driven a vehicle with ADAS enabled has a story to tell, and those stories almost always involve some unexpected behavior.  Anyone who follows the news has unfortunately seen the stories about terrible accidents, some even fatal, involving these new systems.  This is in stark contrast to previous advances in driver assistance systems, such as anti-lock brakes or electronic stability control, which were met with almost universal praise.

This talk will present several examples of these new challenges, explore their underlying causes, and will examine some of the legal issues that are arising as a result of this imperfect interaction between driver and vehicle. Also discussed will be potential remedies, and the corresponding opportunities for consultants and start-ups – this is Silicon Valley, after all.


Automated Vehicles: Challenges and Opportunities 3About the speaker,  Ioannis Kanellakopoulos, PhD of Oraton Consulting

Ioannis Kanellakopoulos, PhD, is an independent consultant and IEEE-CNSV member.  The expert witness side of his consulting practice focuses mainly on patent infringement and personal injury cases involving Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and semi-automated vehicles.

Ioannis was a Professor of Electrical Engineering at UCLA for 8 years, where the applied side of his research program centered around ADAS and automated vehicles.  He collaborated with several automotive OEMs, Tier 1 automotive vendors and the California PATH Program to develop algorithms, sensors and actuators.  With his students, he designed and built an all-electric prototype vehicle, and implemented ADAS strategies on a self-driving 18-wheel tractor-trailer.

Ioannis then came to Silicon Valley where he has worked at several startups (some of which he founded) in telecommunications, audio and ADAS.  He has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Illinois, and is an IEEE Fellow “for contributions to the theory and practice of adaptive nonlinear control.”


Location: NVIDIA Corp., Santa Clara

2880 Scott Blvd., Santa Clara, CA 95050
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