Robotaxis, Robots, and the Power Grid

Join us for a breakfast during Climate week co-organized by EDF and Cathay Innovation around Autonomous vehicles and the energy impact.

Autonomous vehicles—from robotaxis to delivery robots to self-driving freight—are set to become one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand.

But autonomous fleets are different from traditional EVs: they can decide where to go, when to charge, and how to operate as coordinated systems. That intelligence could turn mobility fleets into powerful tools for optimizing energy use—or create new stress on already constrained grids.

This conversation explores how autonomy, electrification, and energy systems are converging—and what it will take to make autonomous electric fleets a driver of the clean energy transition.

The program will include:

8:00am: Welcome 8:30am: Opening of the panel & quick intro on the topic and organizers 8:35am : Robotaxis, Robots, and the Power Grid PanelBrittany Bernas, AV Charging Infrastructure Lead, Zoox Philip Henry de Frahan, Director, Global AV Infrastructure, Uber Peter Cohen, VP & GM of Autonomy + Rideshare, TerawattSena Soysal, Senior Program Manager, eMobility & Open Innovation, EDF US Innovation lab Moderator: Matthieu Soulé, Partner & Head of C.Lab, Cathay Innovation

9:05am: Q&A

9:15am: Networking & breakfast

Bios:

Brittany Bernas leads AV Charging Infrastructure at Zoox, building and scaling charging systems to support Zoox's autonomous vehicle fleet. Before Zoox, she was part of Tesla's Supercharger team deploying fast-charging infrastructure across Southern California. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MBA.

Peter Cohen is Vice President and General Manager of Autonomy + Rideshare at Terawatt Infrastructure, where he leads the team focused on delivering EV charging solutions for Terawatt’s advanced mobility partners. Terawatt builds, owns and operates "full-stack," turnkey charging infrastructure for customers with a laser focus on high uptime, power and electricity optimizing operations. Peter leverages a background in finance, strategy, and operations to work with partners on crafting the future of fleet electrification. He holds a BS in Environmental Engineering from Yale and an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business.

Philip Henry de Frahan leads Global AV Infrastructure at Uber, focused on scaling infrastructure to support Uber’s objective to enable cost effectively launch AVs globally, supporting 500+ vehicles in key U.S. cities today. Prior to Uber, Philip led global operations for Tesla’s charging division, supporting the Supercharger network with 50,000+ fast chargers worldwide.

Cathay Innovation is a global multistage venture capital firm investing in founders building transformative businesses across Europe, North America, Asia, Latam and Africa. Its platform connects founders with Fortune 500 partners to help startups scale and transform industries with consumer to enterprise AI solutions. Founded in 2015, Cathay Innovation manages €2.5B+ and has invested in 120+ startups including Chime, Pinduoduo, Glovo, Owkin, Ledger and more.

Link: www.cathayinnovation.com

Other co-organizer EDF Innovation Lab.

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