Lukas Pankau

Lukas Pankau is the Co-CEO of Industrial Next, an enterprise developing autonomous manufacturing systems for automotive and industrial producers. He began his professional career in the automotive sector at Ford after studying Aeronautical and Financial Engineering at the University of Michigan. Pankau subsequently joined Tesla, where he served in lead electrical architect roles before transitioning to focus on autonomous manufacturing operations at the company's Fremont factory. Following his tenure at Tesla, he spent three years at Waymo, where he was responsible for defining the autonomous vehicle company's next-generation sensor and communications architecture. At Industrial Next, he leverages his engineering background to build advanced hardware architectures that optimize production lines for major car manufacturers. His career centers on advancing automotive electrification and autonomous systems through engineered solutions designed to solve complex industrial manufacturing challenges.