Tesla’s chief executive appeared virtually at Israel’s major transportation technology conference after security concerns prevented his planned in-person visit. Speaking from Austin, Texas at approximately 2:30 a.m. local time, he participated in the Samson International Smart Mobility Summit 2026 in Tel Aviv, addressing questions about self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, and Tesla’s transportation vision.
While his participation provided international recognition for the event, the conference’s primary emphasis centered on the challenging transition from experimental projects to real-world implementation of advanced mobility solutions including autonomous systems, unmanned aircraft, flying vehicles, and innovative transit concepts.
During his virtual appearance, he offered high praise for Israel’s technological achievements. “I have to say, you know, I’m a huge admirer of the innovation coming out of Israel,” he stated.
“Honestly, I think objectively true that Israel punches far above its weight for population. I think probably number one, honestly, in the world,” adding, “My hat is off to Israel for just how much incredible innovation. I say innovation per capita. Israel must be number one by far in the world.”
When discussing Tesla’s self-driving vehicle development, he indicated the company was achieving “steady progress” in making autonomous driving broadly accessible, utilizing “AI and cameras” instead of radar or light detection and ranging (LiDAR), a technology that uses laser pulses to measure distances and create precise 3D maps of objects, terrain, or spaces. “It’s really trying to drive the car in the same way that a human drives the car,” he explained.
The conference’s central theme focused on transforming advanced mobility concepts from experimental demonstrations into functioning infrastructure. Exhibition areas showcased various future transportation technologies: self-driving sensors, unmanned aircraft companies, flying taxi prototypes, road safety systems, and urban transportation proposals. While some technologies were actively seeking commercial customers, others remained dependent on regulatory approval, infrastructure development, or public acceptance before advancing beyond testing phases.
This represented the conference’s fundamental challenge. Advanced mobility technologies were abundant, but practical implementation remained difficult. Transportation Minister Miri Regev connected this obstacle to Israel’s national transportation priorities, including infrastructure development, security considerations, and efforts to encourage public transit usage over private vehicle ownership.
Delivering remarks in Hebrew, she emphasized Israel’s continued investment in future transportation despite current challenges. “The State of Israel, despite the complex period we are in, continues to think ahead, invest in infrastructure, and develop the next generation of startups and technologies,” Regev stated. She highlighted Israeli companies that have transformed global mobility, noting that “millions of drivers around the world use Waze every day,” that “millions of public transport users use Moovit,” and that Mobileye’s technologies, “born in Jerusalem, save lives on roads around the world and advance the autonomous driving revolution.”
In a conversation with The Media Line following her presentation, Regev identified two primary challenges facing Israel’s transportation and technology sectors: security threats, particularly from low-altitude aerial systems, and traffic congestion in a densely populated country with limited space and increasing private vehicle ownership. “The biggest at the moment is the security challenge of low-altitude aerial systems,” she explained. “We saw them in the Russia-Ukraine war, and we also see them today in Lebanon.”
Regarding traffic issues, Regev stated, “Our goal is to move people from private cars to public transportation,” emphasizing that successful transition requires public transportation that is fast, efficient, and accessible.
The shift from private vehicles to integrated public systems emerged as a recurring conference theme. Regev described transportation as affecting living costs, access to outlying areas, employment, education, and essential services, characterizing the ministry’s approach as centered on “Connecting Israel.” She conveyed that transportation policy must now integrate with technology, encompassing not only traditional roads and railways but also data systems, connected vehicles, autonomous platforms, and necessary regulations for operation beyond controlled testing.
Throughout the exhibition area, these challenges manifested differently depending on the specific technology. Some companies faced sensor reliability issues, while others confronted airspace regulations, urban planning requirements, or immediate vehicle safety concerns.
These issues were particularly evident at the Innoviz display. Anna Michlin, VP of product management at the Israeli LiDAR company, explained that autonomous mobility requires perception systems capable of functioning in suboptimal road conditions. Innoviz collaborates with Volkswagen Group and Mobileye on the ID. Buzz autonomous shared mobility project, and with Daimler Truck on autonomous trucking initiatives.
Volkswagen’s ID. Buzz AD autonomous shared mobility project employs fully electric vans engineered to operate without human control in most urban environments, supporting planned ride-pooling and ride-hailing services in cities including Hamburg, Berlin, Oslo, and Los Angeles.
Michlin explained to The Media Line that safer autonomous systems require combining multiple sensors rather than depending on a single technology. “In order to enable safe autonomous mobility, you need to have an ecosystem of sensors that can have reliable sensing in all conditions,” she stated. “This is why cameras, radars, and LiDAR together, when combined, can elevate the safety of the transportation.”
She emphasized that no single sensor provides complete solutions. Cameras, radar, and LiDAR each perceive road conditions differently. Cameras require adequate lighting; LiDAR generates its own illumination; radar, utilizing radio waves, offers significant benefits but provides lower resolution. “They can see larger objects, but not the very small ones,” she noted. For Michlin, Israel’s contribution extends beyond individual technologies to accelerating the broader automotive ecosystem through engineering expertise, academic knowledge, and the startup approach that has characterized much of the country’s technology sector.
The conference also examined aerial technologies, including drones, aerial logistics, and air taxis. Ghil Harly, VP business development at Cando Group, acknowledged the drone industry’s advancement while cautioning against exaggerated expectations about current commercial drone usage. “I always tell my friends, it’s a big hype, right? Because everybody’s talking about drones and what’s happening with drones,” Harly told The Media Line. “But to be fair, let’s be honest, if you look outside of your window, and I dare every one of the viewers to do so, you won’t see a lot of drones in the air.”
Nevertheless, he maintained confidence in the technology’s future. “Will our kids see? Of course,” he said. “It’s here, and it’s here to stay. And it’s advancing. However, it’s still something that is in the works, and it will take time.” Harly noted that current large-scale drone applications remain primarily military, focusing on intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, but Cando aims to demonstrate civilian applications for the same technology.
Harly reported that municipal governments have expanded drone usage beyond homeland security and public safety to include event monitoring, crowd counting, construction site supervision, safety oversight, traffic analysis, and agricultural data collection. “Your customer teaches you the use that you didn’t even think of,” he observed. “It started by counting people, identifying changes, supervising construction sites, safety. It’s a world that never ends.”
Maxim Levy, COO of Dronery, extended this concept into logistics applications. Standing near an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, Levy described Dronery as providing aerial logistics and transportation services focused on autonomous operations. “We give services here in Israel for logistic operations, like delivering medical equipment and medicines between hospitals and between clinics and other complex missions that drones can give the extra advantage that maybe a vehicle will not give it,” he told The Media Line.
The aircraft displayed at the conference, he explained, had completed multiple flights in Israel, including in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Caesarea, though not yet carrying passengers. “We didn’t fly it with people yet, but we are in the process of that,” he said. Levy described the aircraft as capable of vertical takeoff and landing, requiring less space than conventional aircraft, and incorporating safety redundancy through 16 motors and three flight computers.
He projected that commercial operations in Israel could begin within several years, but linked this timeline to security conditions and airspace limitations. “I think that in three or four years we will see them already operating commercially here in Israel,” he predicted. “In other countries in the world, this specific aircraft already operates as a commercial service, but I think when we still have this war here, and we have a lot of restrictions that are concerning the navigation and the communication in the air, it’s still a little bit dangerous.”
While drones and air taxis prompted discussions about airspace usage, other speakers redirected attention to urban infrastructure itself.
Saul Singer, co-founder and chief strategy officer of Line Mobility and co-author of best-sellers Start-Up Nation and The Genius of Israel, argued that mobility discussions should not focus solely on making cars smarter or more autonomous. Singer told The Media Line that the fundamental issue is cities designed around automobiles, and that current approaches have failed to resolve congestion. “Our cities are car-centric,” he said. “They’re full of traffic, and it’s just getting worse.”
His company develops elevated, autonomous mass transit systems designed to operate on dedicated tracks above street level, aiming to provide transportation faster than cars while freeing ground space for community use. “You need to be fast, non-stop,” Singer explained. “You need your own right-of-way, which is elevated. And you need to be autonomous, and it has to be a mass transit system.”
For Singer, elevating transportation above streets serves efficiency and represents a different urban design philosophy. “When transportation’s in the air, so people can have the ground,” he said. “More bike paths, more trees, more space for people. That’s the dream, to have people-centric cities, not car-centric cities.” Singer expressed hope that Israel would pilot the system early, though he added, “We’ll see.”
Other companies concentrated on immediate vehicle safety issues rather than long-term urban transformation.
Adam Tannenbaum, co-founder of TAKY Tech, presented a system designed to prevent children from dying or suffering severe injuries after being left or trapped in overheated vehicles. He told The Media Line that the company’s Athena product utilizes sensor integration from existing vehicle systems, combined with what he termed “escalation decision resolution.” When vehicles reach dangerous temperatures, the system can activate air conditioning, slightly open windows, and turn on lights.
If drivers fail to respond, the system escalates by contacting the driver and additional predetermined contacts. “Ten seconds or so later, we call the driver, and maybe the driver cannot respond,” he explained. “He can’t pick up the call. We call five more people that they’ve selected.”
Tannenbaum noted the problem extends beyond children forgotten in cars during morning routines. He reported that approximately 20% of children who die from vehicle heatstroke enter cars independently later in the day, often during games like hide-and-seek, and that his company addresses this scenario as well. He said the company has engaged with major automotive suppliers and sees deployment possibilities through software updates, including for vehicles currently on roads if necessary hardware exists.
The conference presented multiple visions rather than a single future scenario. For Innoviz, advancement begins with improved perception systems. For Cando and Dronery, progress moves skyward. For Line Mobility, solutions require elevating transit above streets to create ground-level space for people. For TAKY Tech, improvement starts with preventing child deaths in vehicles.
This diversity represented the conference’s central narrative. Advanced mobility no longer constitutes a single field with unified timelines. Some technologies approach deployment readiness, while others await regulation, infrastructure, public acceptance, or stable security conditions. In Israel, these issues are intensified by ongoing conflict, which has made airspace, security, and infrastructure interconnected concerns.
While he provided the conference’s most prominent international presence, and his recognition of Israeli innovation carried significant impact, the future of advanced mobility will be determined beyond conference presentations: in licensing offices, city governments, road testing, emergency services, investment discussions, and daily passenger decisions about whether these systems are sufficiently useful and trustworthy to adopt.
