Autonomy Markets

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss their driver-out ride with Avride, Nuro's impressive deal with Lucid and Uber, and Waymo's Austin depot operated by AVOMO. While in Austin last week, Grayson and Walt met with AVride, experienced a fully autonomous ride in their Hyundai IONIQ 5, and spent time with the company's management team. AVride’s engineerin...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  headed to Austin, Texas to experience Robotaxi firsthand. After spending the week in Austin and experiencing Robotaxi firsthand, we came away truly impressed. Tesla did it, they cracked full self-driving with a vision-only system. From our very first ride we noticed how the autonomous driving system was confident, yet not risky....

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla's robotaxi launch in Austin, OpenAI's growing autonomous driving ambitions, Waymo's future and Foxconn's strategic partnership with Elektrobit. The launch of Tesla's robotaxi has sparked polarized reactions with some hailing it as revolutionary, with some hailing it as a revolutionary milestone and ot...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla's robotaxi launch in Austin, OpenAI's growing autonomous driving ambitions, Waymo's future and Foxconn's strategic partnership with Elektrobit. The launch of Tesla's robotaxi has sparked polarized reactions with some hailing it as revolutionary, with some hailing it as a revolutionary milestone and ot...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s return to the Big Apple, a revealing new Waymo rider survey, political grandstanding in Texas aimed at delaying Tesla’s robotaxi launch, and the emergence of potential new players in autonomous driving sector, Meta and OpenAI.Waymo announced plans to resume testing in New York City this summer, the first time operating...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the start of Tesla’s driver-out operations in Austin, the tenuous relationship between Waymo and Uber, and the UK’s pmomentum on autonomous vehicle regulation, while the EU remains at a standstill. Now that Tesla is testing is testing driver-out operations, they are one step closer to launching commercial robotaxi operat...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk unpack the escalating feud between Elon Musk and President Donald J. Trump just days before Tesla’s highly anticipated robotaxi launch in Austin. The brewing political tension introduces potential new regulatory and market risks for Tesla, especially given Elon Musk's previous influence in The White House. While the full extent of...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla's robotaxi launch in June 12th in Austin, Waymo’s relationship with Uber and Senator Lummis' Autonomous Vehicle Advancement Act. Tesla’s initial robotaxi deployment in Austin will launch with just 10 Model Ys operating within a limited operational design domain (ODD). While modest in scale, investor interest is i...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  preview Tesla’s upcoming FSD robotaxi launch, Waymo’s continued interest in personally-owned autonomous vehicles and Aurora’s stumbles.  As we approach June, all eyes are on Austin in anticipation of Tesla’s highly awaited robotaxi launch. With real-world testing already underway, Tesla is taking a measured yet impactful approac...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s recall, Tesla’s most recent NHTSA letter and Sterling Anderson’s surprise move to join GM as EVP & Chief Product Officer. For the first time ever, Waymo had a fleet-wide recall after a series of minor collisions involving stationary objects, a recall that was fixed with a simple over-the-air update. As Waymo update...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the abrupt resignation of Aurora Co-Founder  Sterling Anderson , why Waymo needs more vehicles and the continued fragmentation of the robotaxi market.  Mr. Anderson’s sudden departure sent shockwaves through the industry, raising critical questions about his next move and the potential impact on Aurora’s partnership with...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo's potential new partnership with Toyota, the launch of Aurora's driver-out commercial operations and Uber's continued effort to challenge the autonomy duopoly. On Tuesday, Waymo announced a potential partnership with Toyota to develop personally-owned autonomous vehicles, confirming a  business pivot  i...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's potential pivot away from HD maps, their 250,000 fully autonomous rides per week milestone, Tesla's pending robotaxi launch and Aurora's long-promised driver-out launch. In a post announcing the milestone on X, Waymo used the term "generalizable Waymo Driver”, potentially hinting that the company may m...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Kodiak starting the process to become a publicly traded company, the anxiety leading up to Aurora’s driver-out commercial launch and Lyft’s expansion into Europe through the acquisition of FREENOW.Kodiak has officially filed to go public in a $2.5 billion SPAC deal, backed by a $100 million PIPE and a 100-truck order from Atla...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Wayve’s OEM partnership with Nissan, Nuro’s Series E capital raise and why the Uber/Waymo partnership in Austin does not guarantee future deployments.  Wayve  is going to power Nissan’s next-generation ProPILOT technology starting in fiscal year 2027. The deal with Nissan validates Wayve’s business model of licensing and...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo's unforced error with the Zeekr RT robotaxi, Uber's future with autonomous vehicles and the winners and losers from the latest round of tariffs. Waymo’s Zeekr RT robotaxi has seen its price double due to a 100% tariff on Chinese-made vehicles, igniting a debate over whether Waymo made an unforced error with...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss their road trip to Forward Forth Worth, Waymo’s expansion to Washington, D.C. and the emerging opportunity in autonomous trucking. Texas is thriving capital of autonomous trucking with Aurora, Bot Auto, Kodiak, Torc and Waabi all having a presence in the state. Now autonomous vehicle companies are flocking to the state with Av...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s mapping expansion to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), their continued Bay Area expansion and Tesla’s ambitious plans for launching a FSD Unsupervised.  As Waymo begins mapping SFO, there are still hurdles that the company has to overcome before offering commercial service, as their current permit prohib...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discus Waymo’s Bay Area expansion and what it means for the great highway and airport unlocks, our visit to May Mobility in Ann Arbor and Amazon’s struggles with Zoox. Waymo has expanded its service area in the Bay Area by 50%, adding 27 square miles in Silicon Valley, for residents only at this time. Is this restriction due to a vehi...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discus Waymo's launch in Austin, Alphabet's strong commitment to Waymo and Hyundai's robotaxi ambitions. On March 5, Waymo launched exclusively on the Uber app in Austin. However, riders cannot guarantee a Waymo vehicle, as there is no dedicated Waymo tier in the app. This lack of certainty could dilute the premium Waymo e...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss why Waymo needs fewer robotaxis than you think and Tesla’s emerging plans for a robotaxi network in California. Waymo continues to scale, surpassing 200,000 paid weekly rides across Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. As the service grows, a group of power riders has emerged, including one rider in San Francisco spend...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Lyft’s autonomous vehicle manifesto, the impending consolidation of the LiDAR market, the emerging personally-owned autonomous vehicle fleet market, and Waabi’s driver-out strategy. Lyft’s manifesto highlights the potential for private car owners to integrate their personally-owned autonomous vehicles into the Lyft network, a...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Walt’s recent trip to San Francisco, where he observed more aggressive driving from Waymo vehicles and spotted a FasTrak transponder—hinting that the great highway unlock is imminent. In the markets, Aurora and Lyft reported earnings, with Aurora’s market cap soaring to $17 billion—triple Lyft’s $5 billion. On its earnings cal...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk break down Uber’s Q4 earnings, highlighting their five keys for success in autonomy: regulation, superhuman safety, cost-effective hardware, fleet management, and high utilization. They also discuss Waymo’s continued expansion and Ford’s willingness to license an SAE Level 4 autonomous system. With Uber scaling fleet operations and Fo...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discussed Tesla’s Q4 earnings, Waymo’s road trip and  Kodiak’s historical announcement . It was Tesla this week that captured investors attention as Elon Musk spoke at length about Tesla’s robotaxi plans, licensing FSD and their plans to launch an Airbnb like service for autonomy.  Will Tesla really hit the June 2025 timeline for unsu...