Auto Titans, Tech Giants Are Meeting In Detroit This Week

TU-Automotive Detroit, the leading event for automotive tech innovation, kicks off on Wednesday, June 3. Benzinga will be there to cover every detail -- until then, take a look at the biggest companies (and their representatives) that are scheduled to speak at the event.

Ford

Ford Motor Company F will be in full force at TU-Automotive. The company is sending four executives -- Gary Strumolo (Manager, Vehicle Design and Infotronics, R&A), Eric Wingfield (Mobility Strategist), Mike Tinskey (Global Director, Vehicle Electrification & Infrastructure) and Jim Buczkowski (Technical Fellow & Director) -- to discuss a wide variety of topics.

General Motors

General Motors Company's GM Dan Kinney (Director, User Experience, Global Connected Customer Experience) and Priyantha Mudalige (Staff Researcher - GM's Autonomous Driving Expert) will dissect two important topics: autonomous driving and the in-car user experience.

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Fiat Chrysler

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's FCAU Bret Scott (Head of Silicon Valley Future Technologies) and Kelly Eighmey (Director, TSO (Technical Assistance & Product Support)), will speak about startups and customer satisfaction.

Nuance

Nuance Communications Inc. NUAN, the company that powers Siri for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL), will also attend TU-Automotive. Pavan Mathew, Nuance's senior director of content strategy, will discuss infotainment and how to perfect the in-car user experience.

Toyota

Toyota Motor Corp (ADR) TM is sending a chief scientist from its research institute, Ken Laberteaux, to explain how automated and semi-automated vehicles will change American life.

Honda & Qualcomm

Nakul Duggal, VP of product management at QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), will join James Keller, chief engineer of R&D at Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE: HMC), for a panel on connectivity and self-driving cars. They will be joined by executives from NNG, Telit, QNX and the Center For Automotive Research.

Microsoft & DreamWorks Animation

Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT) VP & General Manager Bryan Biniak will join DreamWorks Animation Skg Inc's (NASDAQ: DWA) Jim Mainard to discuss the transformation of in-car entertainment.

SAP And General Electric

Gil Perez, SAP SE's (ADR) SAP SVP and GM of the connected car, and Yonatan Hagos, General Electric Company's GE GM and head of solutions for industrial internet, will explore what the auto industry can learn from other sectors that have used big data/machine learning to produce smarter devices.

Cisco

Cisco Systems, Inc.'s (NASDAQ: CSCO) Mike Nielsen (Senior Director and CSO, B2B Cloud) and Andreas Mai (Director, Product Management, Smart Connected Vehicles) will talk about data exchange, congestion relief for smarter cities and the challenges of connecting billions of devices -- including automobiles.

HortonWorks

Suresh Srinivas, founder of Hortonworks Inc (NASDAQ: HDP), will participate in a panel titled, "Data Transforms the Automotive Industry."

Cognizant

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp's (NASDAQ: CTSH) Ajai Vasudevan (Assistant Vice President & Senior Client Partner, Manufacturing & Logistics) and Prasad Satyavolu (Global Head of Innovation) will look at two key topics: the ROI for connected cars and how automobiles fit into the connected life style.

T-Mobile, AT&T & Verizon

T-Mobile US Inc's (NYSE: TMUS) Rusty Lhamon (Director, T-Mobile IoT/M2M) and Robert Scales (Sr Account M2M Manager Business Development) will tackle the Internet of Things and the future of connected fleets. Verizon Communications Inc.'s (NYSE: VZ) Amit Jain (Director - Internet of Things, Corporate Strategy, Verizon Enterprise) and Michael Toto (Director, Verizon Enterprise) will go over a toolbox for shared fleet management and examine how big data will shape the industry. AT&T Inc.'s T Cameron Coursey (VP of Product Development) will discuss how to monetize the connected car.

Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report.