Lawrence D. Burns

Lawrence (Larry) D. Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Wejo and of Niron Magnetics. His current clients include Goodyear, Kitson & Partners, Neural Propulsion Systems and Nanoramic Laboratories.

Larry served as General Motors Corporate Vice President of Research & Development and Planning from 1998-2009. Between 2010 and 2021, Larry was a consultant to Waymo (Google Self-Driving Cars), Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan, Director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University, and an advisor to several major companies.

Larry is a leading authority on how autonomous electric vehicles used in transportation services will transform the way people and goods move around and interact. He coined the phrase “age of automobility” to describe this future in his book, Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car And How It Will Reshape Our World (Ecco / HarperCollins, August, 2018).

Larry is an informative, engaging and forward-thinking speaker and has made more than 500 keynote, conference and media presentations around the world. He focuses on accelerating the “age of automobility” and educating industry leaders, policymakers, technologists and engineers on how to position to succeed in this exciting and compelling future.

Larry has been featured in The Atlantic, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, BBC, Forbes, USA Today, 60 Minutes, NBC, Bloomberg, and more.

Larry has a PhD in civil engineering from the University of California-Berkeley and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the ITS America Hall of Fame.