Introduction: The Automated Vehicles Symposium 2020

The 2020 Automated Vehicles Symposium represented a significant departure from its predecessors, since it had to be converted on short notice from an in-person meeting to a virtual meeting in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Most of the originally planned content was retained in the process, although the activities were of necessity less interactive than in previous years. The plenary and poster presentations and breakout discussions continued to provide the meeting participants with the most up-to-date and authoritative information about the current international state of development and deployment of road vehicle automation systems, retaining its standing as the essential meeting for industry, government and research practitioners in the field.