Larry Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. His current clients include Waymo, Peloton Technology, and Kitson & Partners. Larry served as General Motors Corporate Vice President of Research & Development and Planning from 1998-2009. He was a member of GM’s top decision board and was responsible for advanced technology development, product portfolio planning, capacity planning and strategic planning.

A major voice for the “reinvention of the automobile” and the diversification of transportation energy, he has championed driverless and connected vehicles, vehicle electrification, fuel cells, advanced batteries, bio-fuels, and innovative concept vehicles. Following his years at GM, Larry was Professor of Engineering Practice at the University of Michigan and Director of the Program for Sustainable Mobility at Columbia University. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the ITS America Hall of Fame, and is co-author of Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century, published in 2010.

Larry’s newest book is Autonomy: The Quest to Build The Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World (with Christopher Shulgan). It is a chronicle of the past, diagnosis of the present, and prediction of the future—the ultimate guide to understanding the driverless car and navigating the revolution it sparks. Soon, he claims, few of us will own our own automobiles and instead will get around in driverless electric vehicles that we summon with the touch of an app. We will be liberated from driving, prevent over 90% of car crashes, provide freedom of mobility to the elderly and disabled, and decrease our dependence on fossil fuels.

Larry has a PhD in Civil Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; an MS in Engineering / Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and, a BS in Mechanical Engineering, from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University).