Presenting our new President Hans Wicki

  Transcription of the video: What is your vision on autonomous mobility in Switzerland and SAAM? First of all, some words about my person. My name is Hans Wicki, I was born in 1964, married and father of 2 children…

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Raphaël Sauvain

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  Transcription of the video: What is your vision on autonomous mobility in Switzerland and SAAM? First of all, some words about my person. My name is Hans Wicki, I was born in 1964, married and father of 2 children living in a medium sized community in Nidwald near Luzern. In 1997, I obtained a Master at the University of Zurich in Business Administration with a special field in finance. After my time as a student, I started my career in Schindler as a project leader in the management department. The following 10 years I was part of the Pfister group as managing director and member of the strategoic board of the group. Since 2014 I am a member of the board of directors of different companies and member of different umbrella organisations such as AutoSchweiz. Since 2016 I am owner and managing director of Perkspekt GmbH. Politically, I started in my new municipality as a local councillor and mayor. In 2010, I was elected in the government of the canton Nidwalder. I have been member of the council of state since 2015, in which I am president of the transport commission, vice-president of the economic commission, and member of the security commission. Mobility is an important foundation for a solid society, where people can meet each other physically or delivery of goods can be accessible to all in a fast and easy way. With this vision in mind, I consider that mobility should become more efficient, economical and sustainable. However, with the current mobility systems, this seems to be difficult to reach. For this reason, autonomous mobility seems to be the right solution.   As we all know, autonomous vehicles have many advantages. First of all, they will be able to reach rural and isolated areas more efficiently using on-demand services, and they will be more economical as vehicles can be ordered punctually. Likewise, they can offer more liberty to seniors and to people with disabilities. Also, they could help to make our roads safer by removing the human error components, thus saving lives and medical costs. In addition, in the context where mobility accounts for most CO2 emissions, car-sharing and optimized transportation can improve mobility efficiency and possibly reduce congestions, therefore reducing emissions.  In summary, at best, the use of automated vehicles can lead to more accessible, greener, inclusive and safer cities, suburbs and rural areas.  In this regard, I think that the potential of autonomous mobility for our society is considerable. Switzerland counts on many important stakeholders actively working in this field, and has been one of the pioneering countries to showcase automated shuttles. As a result, the potential of SAAM is huge. The collaboration between members, the working groups established and the projects that will be launched in SAAM show that the association is organized in a very well practical approach, which can ultimately make SAAM a renowned organization worldwide. As President, I would like to help leverage the ability for Switzerland to innovate in the field of autonomous mobility, and to accompany new national policies in order to introduce autonomous vehicles on public roads as soon as possible.