At the world Expo 2020 Dubai from 7th to 14th November 2021, the BTC Company as a development-oriented company will present itself to the international public at the Slovenian pavilion in the scope of the “Urban and Rural Development and Smart Buildings” thematic set. The key part of the BTC Company’s programme at Expo 2020 Dubai was yesterday’s opening of the AI Driving Hub and the signing of the agreement on cooperation in the field of the development of driver training simulations. This reflects the BTC Company’s efforts, deriving from its new strategy Society 5.0 that follows the trends of accelerated technological transformation and globalisation.

BTC’s presentation at Expo 2020 Dubai began on Sunday, 7^th November, with the opening of the AI Driving Hub at the Dubai World Trade Centre, as part of the 18^th Congress of the International Road Federation (IRF). In collaboration with IRF and local partners in Dubai, the AI Driving Hub was set up by the AV Living Lab, which is co-owned by the BTC Company. Representatives of the Government of Dubai, the Road & Transport Authority Dubai, the Dubai Police and different companies (Emirates, DHL, UPS, Amazon and others) were present at the opening event at the AV Living Lab exhibition area. Upon the opening, the area featuring a driving simulator was also visited by an official delegation of representatives of the Dubai Royal Family, ministers, mayors, CEOs and other esteemed guests.

In the AI Driving Hub, the AV Living Lab is presenting the daim™ technology, developed by the Slovenian AI experts. This technology can be seen as the core of the “AI Driving Hub Dubai” centre and represents a solution (simulator, hardware and software) for an advanced real-time driver evaluation and training using artificial intelligence. This technology will aim to provide safer roads in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates and the Gulf Cooperation Council region (the latter includes six countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates). The daim brand stands for “driver artificial intelligence mobility”; in Arabic, it means perseverance.

Daniel Avdagič, CEO of the AV Living Lab, pointed out at the opening: “The AV Living Lab is a company that aims to transform mobility. In the BTC City Ljubljana ecosystem, we connect several industries and breakthrough technologies for the development of advanced solutions for the future of mobility. In this unique testing environment, we are already developing solutions for our international partners, e.g., Daimler, Magna, Porsche and Toyota. We are proud to have presented to the world public at the Expo a solution that will contribute to greater traffic safety through the use of artificial intelligence. As part of the first phase, the hub has been set up in Dubai, and will later on be expanded to several more locations in Dubai and in the region.”

At the opening of the AI Driving Hub, a cooperation agreement to develop driver training simulations was signed by the AV Living Lab, a local partner of the Location Solution project and the Dubai organisation Excellence Driving. The latter is the fastest growing network of driving schools and safe driving schools in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which will contribute its knowledge in the field of driver education in the UAE and market the service to its users.

Following the opening of the AI Driving Hub and the signing of the agreement was BTC’s presentation event “City as a Lab – a unique city within the city with the Living Lab concept” taking place at the Slovenian pavilion. The Ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia to the United Arab Emirates, Oto Pungartnik, Minister for digital transformation of the Republic of Slovenia, Mark Boris Andrijanič, Director at SPIRIT Slovenia, Tomaž Kostanjevec, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at BTC, Damjan Kralj, M.Sc., and CEO of the AV Living Lab, Daniel Avdagič gave speeches at the event. At the event, Damjan Kralj, M.Sc., presented BTC City Ljubljana as the largest shopping, business and innovation centre in Southeast Europe along with its digital transformation and BTC City as an innovative ecosystem.

Chief Executive Officer at BTC, Damjan Kralj, M.Sc., emphasised upon BTC’s participation at world Expo 2020 Dubai: “At BTC, we believe that partnering up with business entities in the field of innovation and new technologies is key to achieving sustainable business success on a global scale. We are proud to see advanced solutions of the AV Living Lab, with which we cooperate and which we also co-own, presented at Expo 2020 Dubai. In the scope of our new development strategy Society 5.0, we are pursuing an accelerated technological transformation of our own activities as well as the global integration. Thus, our company presents itself at the Expo to the international business public as a development-oriented innovative company that encourages business cooperation and the creation of new business opportunities for BTC and its partners with a fundamental purpose of positioning BTC as an entry point for innovation and business expansion in the international environment. The Expo represents a unique opportunity for learning about global trends, breakthrough solutions and best practices; thus, a large delegation of our employees visited Expo 2020 Dubai with the purpose of catching the spirit of inspiration.”

Mark Boris Andrijanič, Minister for digital transformation of the Republic of Slovenia, emphasised: “The world Expo 2020 Dubai presents incredible opportunities for Slovenia to show to the world much more than just its geographical small size, but also the immensity and vastness of Slovenian knowledge and innovation in the field of digital solutions and of the introduction of new technologies. The Slovenian pavilion shows Slovenia as the green heart of Europe and the crossroads of important European paths; thus, I have no doubt that the pavilion will contribute to international promotion, consolidating Slovenia’s reputation in the world as well as international cooperation. The latter is key for the development and introduction of new technologies of the future.”

Tomaž Kostanjevec, PhD, Director of SPIRIT Slovenia, said: “The BTC Company is very important for SPIRIT Slovenia from the cooperation perspective in the project Slovenian Digital Center and with regard to innovativeness. Our cooperation with the AV Living Lab has been successful from the word go. With excellent complementation and cooperation, we presented our activities at the mobility conference and the Slovenian Pavilion in Dubai. It pleases me to see the private and public sector jointly supporting progressive projects, such as AI driver training, and thereby providing breakthrough and recognition to the Slovenian economy. Upon this occasion, I wish to congratulate the BTC and the AV Living Lab teams.”

BTC’s focus stems from its new development strategy Society 5.0, showing the company’s ambitions to position itself in the international business environment as a real testing environment for various software and hardware solutions, especially in the fields of Industry 4.0 and Society 5.0. The established extensive business and innovation ecosystem, connecting several business partners, pursues BTC’s strategic policy of becoming a globally integrated business ecosystem based on innovation and development, which is also connected to BTC’s undertaking to support start-ups. In its new strategy, BTC follows a commitment to invest in three to five start-ups each year by 2025.

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