Atlanta startup enabling  air traffic control for autonomous cars, smarter cities
A tragic fatality involving an autonomous Uber vehicle in Arizona this week again underscored the challenges facing the burgeoning industry.  But Atlanta-based startup Metrotech is at the forefront in developing solutions that could help make the future safer and help manage the ever increasing congestion throttling most of our major metropolitan areas.
The lastest edition of Series A- The Podcast travels to the Atlanta Tech Village, where host Jim Brisimitzis visits with Metrotech COO/CTO and veteran Silicon Valley startup fixer Paul Valcheff.
The promise of easing traffic and managing a future that could bring us far closer to one envisioned by the Jetsons was what drew Valcheff to Metrotech.
"If you're all drawing from the same data sets and if you're all communicating with each other, now we can finally get through congestion."
Valcheff details the rapid, tech-driven changes in the automotive industry that are shifting the focus from Detroit to the Silicon Valley and other tech centers including Atlanta.
"There are massive changes over the next five to 10 years that we can't even imagine today," he says in the wide ranging conversation.
Valcheff offers interesting comparisons between the Silicon Valley and Atlanta for founders, as well as a number of hard-earned lessons and insights regardless of geography.
He also provides an insider's perspective on opportunities for founders across the country when it comes to what's being termed "Transportation Technology" or "Trans Tech," and details why Atlanta is poised to become the center of what promises to be a multi-billion dollar industry (with the world's busiest airport, Delta Airlines, UPS, AT&T, Kia and numerous other car manufacturers and OEM's, it's understandable why.)
Listen now to the in depth conversation on the future of transportation technology in this edition of Series A-The Podcast with Jim Brisimitzis, General Manager of the Microsoft for Startups team in the United States and Canada.