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On October 17^th, 2017 MIR Initiative held a panel discussion on unmanned technologies in transportation within the Open Innovations Forum in Skolkovo Technopark. Industry’s top experts took part in the discussion: Sergei Kelbakh (Chairman of the Board, the State company ‘Russianhighways’), Vadim Kulikov (Deputy general Director, Agency for technological development), Alexander Klimov (First vice-rector, Russian University of Transport), Maurizio Delfino (Partner, Studio Legale Delfino e Associati Willkie Farr & Gallagher), Oleg Ponfilenok (General Director, Copter Express) and Andrey Belousov (General Director, ELVEES NeoTek). The session was moderated by Ernest Sultanov, coordinator of MIR Initiative and the New Silk Road Cities Forum.

The session was attended by honorable guests and partners of MIR Initiative, among them representatives of the Ministry for Transportation of Russia and Russian Railways. Moreover, as the participant of the New Silk Road Cities Forum, Budapest sent a delegation to Moscow specially to attend the panel and exchange experience and knowledge between the cities’ experts in innovative mobility enhancement.

Discussion on the panel focused on the future of unmanned transportation and ways of acceleration of its coming. This included reflection on the project of driverless caravans from China to Russia for fast and reliable freight transportation, perspectives of the use of drones in construction, delivery and monitoring, the problems of legal and financial liabilities associated with driverless vehicles, new legislation for the emerging technologies, changes in the job market and preparation of personnel qualified for the new technologies.

Question of the exact timeframe for the introduction of unmanned technologies in our everyday lives has been left open, but certain strategies to boost the process have been elaborated during the panel and will be taken into consideration. The ideas generated during the panel will be reflected in MIR Initiative’s second edition of White Book and the problems left unsolved will keep on being discussed within future events of the New Silk Road Cities Forum.

The annual Open Innovations forum has been held in Moscow since 2012 under the aegis of the Government of the Russian Federation and is rightfully considered a unique discussion platform for participants in the formation of an innovative ecosystem. This year it was attended by 18000 from 100 countries.