Autonomy Markets

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss New York Governor Hochul’s bill to legalize autonomous vehicles in New York, with New York City notably carved out, Uber’s changing  Waymo partnership language and Waymo’s upcoming expansion to Sydney.  In New York, autonomous vehicles could be coming to state roads, but not New York City, as Mayor Mamdani is prioritizing...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss CES 2026, Zoox’s performance on the Las Vegas Strip and Uber’s potential long-term autonomy plans.  Zoox’s performance was one of those hopefully “only in Las Vegas” moments, as the vehicle was seen stopping in the middle of traffic and blocking entrances on a regular basis. Which raises the question; what is Amazon going...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss the fallout from Waymo’s crisis management failure in San Francisco, where a power outage left hundreds of vehicles stranded and blocking intersections throughout the city.  Waymo’s prolonged silence on the incident and lack of transparency regarding what truly happened could lead to a decline in public trust just as robot...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk, Grayson hit the road and met with Tim Kentley-Klay of HYPRLABS in San Francisco, Tesla started removing the safety attendees in Austin and Waymo is reportedly raising another round at a $110 billion valuation. Grayson shares details from his exclusive first ride in the  HYPRDRIVE vehicle  in San Francisco and insights from his The Ro...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Rivian’s bold vertical integration bet as the EV maker announced plans to build their own chips and lidar sensors, effectively moving away from NVIDIA. Is the introduction of “Autonomy+”, a new software subscription priced to undercut competitors a risky distraction or a necessary move as the company works toward profita...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss "Thriller in the Big D" as Waymo upstages Uber’s party in Dallas. The day before Uber was set to announce its commercial launch with Avride in Dallas, Waymo stole the spotlight by announcing they went driver-out in the same city.  During the episode Grayson and Walt analyzed the fallout from this timing, including Uber’s...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Uber and WeRide's fully autonomous launch in Abu Dhabi, marking Uber's first robotaxi deployment without a safety driver outside the United States. On WeRide's earnings, the company announced a fleet of 1,600 autonomous vehicles with 750 robotaxis, while Pony.ai announced plans to triple its fleet to 3,000 by...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s accelerated nationwide expansion with new markets, Minneapolis, Tampa, New Orleans, Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando getting ready to come online, while breaking down and coin Waymo’s Six Stages of Autonomy. As  Waymo  expands, competition is brewing in Dallas where  Avride  in partnership with Ub...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's great highway unlock, their Bay Area expansion to 260 square miles and the launch of commercial service at the San Jose Airport. Despite the expansion, Waymo remains sharply vehicle-constrained. Bloomberg reported this week that the company is operating roughly 1,000 vehicles in the Bay Area, 700 in Los Angeles, 50...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s expansion into three new markets, Uber’s role in autonomy and Lyft’s growing infrastructure ambitions.  Beneath the headlines, Tesla is aiming to once again reshape the entire autonomous driving industry with their AI5 chip, FSD Unsupervised deployment, and the expansion of their insurance business. As Tesla cont...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss NVIDIA’s ever expanding autonomy ambitions and the fracturing relationship between Waymo and Uber, which may signal the end of one of the industry’s most-watched partnerships. Jensen Huang’s latest GTC announcements further signaled that NVIDIA is moving beyond supplying compute to potentially building their own full autonomy...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Tesla’s Q3 earnings call, NVIDIA’s strategic partnership with Uber, and GM’s surprising return to autonomy under Sterling Anderson’s leadership. The conversation opens with Walt’s firsthand insights from Tesla’s Q3 2025 earnings call, where the company confirmed plans to remove safety attendants across “large parts” of Aus...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s continued FSD 14 updates, Waymo’s expansion to London and the growing political and infrastructure challenges shaping the next phase of robotaxi growth. Walt shares his latest hands-on experience with FSD 14, including testing the new “Mad Max” mode, featuring more assertive lane changes, higher driving speeds, and imp...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s FSD 14 release and Waymo’s potential market expansions. The episode begins with Walt sharing his firsthand experience testing FSD 14, showcasing its breakthrough ability to autonomously back out of driveways and park at destinations with a single tap. While impressive, he notes challenges remain with driveway precision...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the accelerating global expansion of robotaxis. In London, Wayve is proving its adaptable, AI-powered autonomous system can navigate complex roadways, from double roundabouts to unpredictable pedestrian interactions without reliance on LiDAR. Wayve's strategy of working hand-in-hand with OEMs sets it apart from Tesla’s...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the upcoming release of Tesla FSD 14, Waymo’s potential expansion to London and Nuro taking delivery of their first Lucid-built robotaxi. What will the highly anticipated release of FSD 14 (Supervised) mean for the market? Could reduced driver monitoring signal that Tesla is inching closer to FSD Unsupervised? One thing...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Lyft’s dramatic return to the big leagues of the autonomous vehicle industry through a surprise partnership with Waymo in Nashville, including fleet management, sending Lyft stock soaring 20% while Uber dropped 5%.Grayson and Walt examine the strategic implications of this non-exclusive deal, where a shared fleet will operate...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the rapidly shifting landscape of AI inside of vehicles, exploring how xAI’s Grok and Google’s Gemini are shaping the next wave of “car real estate.”  Grayson and Walt debate whether these AI systems will remain as assistants limited to Q&A or evolve into agentic copilots capable of controlling everything from “car was...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the new expansion announcements from both Waymo and Tesla, framing it as a “heavyweight fight”.  Waymo announced plans to expand to Denver and Seattle, with Denver set to become the first city where its fleet will include both Jaguar I-PACEs and Zeekrs. The company also gained regulatory approval to operate at the San Jose...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  marked the one-year anniversary of Autonomy Markets and discussed the reignited debate between LiDAR and vision-only after comments made by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during an interview.  During the interview, Mr. Khosrowshahi stated that in the short term, a combination of camera, LiDAR, and radar is the “right solution,” noting...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the significant operational challenges in the autonomy autonomous vehicles industry and Waymo's on-going difficulties with its Atlanta launch on Uber. Waymo's launch in Atlanta has gone anything but smooth. A shortage of vehicles and frequent rider pairing issues on Uber have sparked negative local media coverage, with F...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss GM’s sudden return to autonomous vehicles, Waymo’s growing supply constraints, and the launch of Tensor Auto. A few months after shutting down Cruise, GM is once again re-entering the autonomous vehicle market, but this time with a twist. This time around the company will be focusing on developing personally-owned autonomous v...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Uber’s growing autonomous vehicle investments and why they won’t be modest.  While Uber publicly framed their autonomy spending as “modest” and emphasized share buybacks, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made it clear on the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call that more OEM partnerships and AV deals are on the horizon.  At the same tim...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s expansion to Dallas without Uber, instead partnering with Avis and renewing a relationship that dates back to 2017 and the emerging Tesla double standard.  Waymo’s multi-year partnership with Avis signals the company’s desire to maintain flexibility, rather than locking into exclusive partnerships. With Avis once...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla and Alphabet’s Q2 2025 earnings calls, Tesla’s growing robotaxi ambitions and the launch of Zoox’s limited fixed-route service in Las Vegas. Tesla’s Robotaxi expansion ambitions are growing, and on their Q2 2025 earnings call, Elon Musk disclosed that Tesla is looking to expand robotaxi service to Nevada, Florida, Arizon...