Session Overview

This session will present the latest development overview in automated driving across Europe and the United States, highlighting advanced initiatives underway in each region. The session aims to deepen understanding of the current global landscape of automated driving and its future outlook.

Speakers

Moderator

Tsuyoshi Sakuma

Director, ITS Japan Strategic Planning Group, ITS Japan, Japan

Tsuyoshi Sakuma, Ph.D., is Director at ITS Japan, where he is engaged in advancing intelligent transport systems and future mobility through collaboration among industry, academia, and government.
Prior to joining ITS Japan in 2025, he spent more than 20 years at Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., primarily in research and development. His work has covered a broad range of automotive and human-centered research areas, including vehicle control systems, human factors and ergonomics, cognitive science, neuroscience, driver behavior, and automated driving. 
Throughout his research career, he has focused on understanding the relationship between humans and vehicles and applying insights into human physical, cognitive, and neural characteristics to the development of safer and more intuitive mobility systems. His research topics have included steering systems based on human characteristics, computational modeling of driving pleasure, prediction of driver intentions based on human cognitive mechanisms, human interaction with automated vehicles, and driving behavior associated with aging. 
He received his Master of Engineering degree from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Engineering from Waseda University. His doctoral research focused on the development of a driving decision-making model based on the structure and mechanisms of the human brain. 
Drawing on his experience in automotive R&D and human-centered mobility research, he is currently contributing to discussions and initiatives toward safer, smarter, and more sustainable mobility.

Speakers

William “Billy” Riggs

Professor, University of San Francisco; Director, Autonomous Vehicles and the City Initiative, USA

William “Billy” Riggs is a Professor at the University of San Francisco and Director of the Autonomous Vehicles and the City Initiative. His research focuses on autonomous mobility, transportation innovation, Physical AI, public-sector governance, curb and public-space management, and the social and institutional implications of emerging technology. He works at the intersection of cities, technology, and policy, with particular interest in how autonomous systems can be integrated into transportation networks while advancing safety, accessibility, sustainability, resilience, and public value.
Riggs has led research and advisory work with cities, transportation agencies, universities, and industry partners in the United States, Europe, and Asia. His recent work includes research on automated-vehicle deployment and safety, passenger experience and public trust, transit integration, vehicle-miles traveled and congestion, emergency-response interactions, urban curb operations, and city readiness for Physical AI. He also serves in international advisory and research roles related to connected, cooperative, and automated mobility.
He is the author of End of the Road: Reimagining the Street as the Heart of the City and has published widely on transportation, urban planning, public space, and emerging mobility technologies. His current work develops an Urban Physical AI Readiness framework for understanding how cities can govern AI systems that increasingly act in the physical world.

Stephane Dreher

Head of CCAM, ERTICO - ITS Europe, Belgium

Dr. Stephane Dreher is Head of Connected, Cooperative and Automated Mobility (CCAM) at ERTICO – ITS Europe. He has been coordinating a series of EU funded projects for the last 10 years aiming at support the CCAM Partnership and European Commission for the alignment of CCAM R&I, testing and deployment across Europe. He serves on the Executive Group of the European CCAM Partnership under the Horizon Europe programme, where he leads the coordination cluster. Prior to that he worked with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as Transport Data expert in Saudi Arabia and spent a decade at HERE Technologies, where he led EU Government Programmes in Brussels.