Pellegrini: 2021 Might Be Year of Self-driving Cars

Pellegrini: 2021 Might Be Year of Self-driving Cars

Tel Aviv, January 31 (TASR-correspondent) – The year 2021 could be the year of fully autonomous cars operated by artificial intelligence, stated Slovak Vice-premier for Investments and Informatisation Peter Pellegrini (Smer-SD) in his speech at the global CyberTech 2017 conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

“Small countries have to be open to innovation. Cars in the future will be intelligent and inter-connected, they will not only optimise their operation and maintenance, but also improve the experience and comfort of the drive,” said Pellegrini.

While Israel has become known as the nation of start-ups in recent decades, Slovakia has transformed into the nation of automotive industry, added the Slovak vice-premier. “Several world leaders in the automotive industry have decided to place their manufacturing plants in Slovakia. Our companies produce cars of the highest quality, the Audi and Porsche models included… Slovakia is among the world’s leaders in car production,” he said in his speech.

Pellegrini further explained that in order to be able to use self-driving cars in the future, it’s important to focus on three areas – infrastructure, the legal framework and industry clusters.
“The very first requirement for introducing inter-connected and self-driving cars is to provide a 5G network that would cover the entire (European) continent,” he said, adding that without faster internet the introduction of autonomous vehicles in Europe won’t be possible.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his speech at the conference stressed that despite Israel’s small geographic area, the country is among the top five leaders in cyber security. “I think we have this power because we are small,” said Netanyahu, stressing the importance of young people in this sphere. Moreover, the Israeli prime minister noted that by joining forces it’s possible to better combat cyber terror.

The global CyberTech 2017 conference is one of the most prestigious of its kind. The Slovak delegation, which is accompanying Pellegrini on his three-day working visit to Israel, is made up of entrepreneurs and representatives of cybernetic security start-ups.

The business delegation has taken part in the conference in order to strengthen economic cooperation between Slovakia and Israel in the field of information technology, to showcase Slovak companies, and to establish new business opportunities and cooperation with Israeli partner companies.