Shift: A podcast about mobility

Siyu Huang, founder and CEO of Factorial Energy , provides updates on the company’s ongoing work with Stellantis, Mercedes-Benz and Hyundai, and details the company’s efforts in developing solid-state batteries that allow for much faster electric vehicle charging times. She discusses what the end of federal tax credits will mean for EV sales and the expected trickle-down fallout on battery startup...

Lankton, chief commercial officer at Redwood Materials, details why the company just opened its Redwood Energy business unit and how it is repurposing used electric-vehicle batteries in energy storage systems .  He discusses Redwood’s first major project, a system that utilizes more than 700 used EV battery packs that’s already the largest microgrid in North America. That system powers an AI data...

Michael Dunne, CEO and founder of advisory firm Dunne Insights, details how Chinese automotive startups like BYD asserted dominance over Detroit’s legacy carmakers.  He explores Ford CEO Jim Farley’s effusive praise of Chinese automakers during the recent Aspen Ideas Festival and the difficulty legacy automakers have in keeping pace with clean-sheet tech startups. Finally, Dunne discusses a workar...

Jeremy Bird, executive vice president of driver experience at Lyft, explains how the company is working with Mobileye , May Mobility and others to launch robotaxis in the near term. He explores the complementary and competitive aspects of relationships between ride-hailing networks and self-driving tech providers, and the pricing differences between human-driven and automated rides.  Further, Bird...

Kathleen Rizk, senior director in J.D. Power’s global automotive practice, and Lisa Boor, senior manager in the firm’s mobility benchmarking unit, address consumer confusion in the realm of driver-assist systems. They detail their latest consumer surveys, which reveal motorists do not find many driver-assist features useful and are unsure if these systems benefit safety or convenience. Rizk and Bo...

From his time inside a robotaxi startup, Alex Roy knows what it really takes to build a business around self-driving technology. The venture-capital partner, business advisor, podcast host and founder of the Human Driving Association examines Tesla’s pending robotaxi launch in Austin, Texas, and discusses whether robotaxis can become a profitable business. He further discusses the capability of Te...

The founder and co-director of MIT’s Advanced Vehicle Technology Consortium, Bryan Reimer, says the auto industry has been distracted by the allure of highly automated driving and should place short-term focus on developing smarter collaborations between motorists and machines. Reimer further explores the nuances involved in distracted driving discussions and the business models associated with fu...

Bob Lee, the North American president of LG Energy Solution, details how the ongoing tariff turmoil has both helped and hindered the company’s long-term planning efforts. He details how the company’s decision to invest in a variety of battery chemistries, produced at eight different North American factories, has brought a growing number of interested customers, despite a more tepid electric vehicl...

Steven Jenkins, vice president of technology strategy at Magna Electronics, discusses how partnerships with the likes of Nvidia spur progress and sophistication in driver-assistance systems. Further, he explains how suppliers remain central in the commercialization of vehicles while working with tech companies and traditional automakers. Finally, he offers firsthand observations on China’s automat...

Grayson Brulte, founder and CEO of The Road to Autonomy, discusses recent developments in autonomous driving, including Sterling Anderson’s departure from Aurora for a new job at General Motors . Brulte details Aurora’s driverless launch and a short-seller report that has since detoured the self-driving truck startup. He further surveys Waymo’s progress , sizes up Tesla as a potential robotaxi riv...

The executive vice president and chief technology officer at Oshkosh Corp. details the company’s efforts to infuse automated driving technology into work vehicles with niche applications . Those applications range from airport baggage trolleys to garbage trucks — and even autonomous garbage cans that bring themselves to and from the curb. Iyengar explains the compelling business propositions behin...

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence principal analyst Bryan Bille assesses policy changes in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term that affect critical mineral developments, batteries and the electric vehicle supply chain. Amid tariffs and a geopolitical rivalry with China as the backdrop, Bille compares and contrasts Trump’s plans to develop domestic mining and processing options...

McKinsey’s partners Philipp Kampshoff and Patrick Hertzke break down results from the consulting firm’s annual global consumer pulse survey . They detail improvement in owner experiences with electric vehicles in the U.S. and the reasons driver-assist systems will likely become a “clear differentiator” with consumers in the years ahead.

Fischer, vice president of commercial and operations, discusses the tech startup’s new partnership with Nissan , which is Wayve’s first public tie-up with a global automaker. She details how Wayve’s end-to-end AI models help drive the company’s ability to rapidly scale, deliver on its global aspirations and forge an “AV 2.0″ era. Further, she discusses the allure of Level 3 automation and talks ab...

On this week’s podcast, the chief technology officer and director of Woven by Toyota details the latest developments at Woven City, the company’s technology and mobility test bed located at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan. He discusses Woven’s ongoing work with the Arene operating system and its role in accelerating the maturity of software-defined vehicles. Further, Absmeier explains Woven’s self...

The author of “ Are We There Yet?: The American Automobile, Past, Present And Driverless” examines the effectiveness of efforts to improve road safety with automated-driving technology. In a wide-ranging discussion, he further discusses the appeal of Kei trucks , General Motors’ 1 939 Futurama exhibit , Peak Auto, and the virtues of tech-free road trips.

Self-driving tech company Aurora Innovation plans to launch commercial service with its driverless trucks in April. In this episode, Nat Beuse, Aurora’s head of safety, and Gerardo Interiano, senior vice president of government relations, preview the launch and delve into the details of how the company prepared to safely deploy trucks with no humans aboard on public roads in Texas.

This week’s Shift podcast features multiple interviews regarding news developments shared at Nvidia’s GTC , a prominent conference for developers sharing their latest artificial intelligence innovations. In this episode: Nvidia automotive Vice President Ali Kani discusses the company’s new partnership with General Motors and delves deeper into the tech giant’s long-term automotive strategy. Wayve...

Following a driverless ride around Ann Arbor, Mich., Edwin Olson, the CEO and co-founder of Toyota-backed May Mobility , sits down for a discussion on the company’s plans for new deployments and the company’s work with Lyft. Further, Olson explains how May Mobility’s business model differs from those of its competitors, who actually owns self-driving vehicles, and how the startup quietly emerged a...

Adam Rodriguez, executive director of product and advanced driver-assistance systems at General Motors, shares the latest updates to the company’s Super Cruise feature. Further, he details how GM is integrating software from Cruise, the company’s abandoned robotaxi subsidiary, into blueprints for someday offering personally owned autonomous vehicles.

The senior vice president and general manager of automotive business at computing tech firm Arm underscores the importance of software-defined vehicles to the automotive future. Further, she explains how carmakers can keep up with the frenetic pace of industry innovation.

The founder and managing director of consulting firm Sino Auto Insights discusses BYD’s new “God’s Eye” automated driving system and how it ratchets up competition with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature. Further, Le underscores the significance of BYD surpassing 4 million vehicles sold in 2024 and China’s broader automotive ascendance.

The Waabi co-founder and CEO of the autonomous-trucking startup discusses a new partnership with Volvo Autonomous Solutions. Further, she details the generative AI advances at the heart of the company’s end-to-end AI stack and approach to developing “AV 2.0.”

Self-driving trucks are expected to make substantial progress in 2025. Here, the Kodiak Robotics CEO and founder takes stock of the burgeoning industry while detailing how his company readied for driverless deployment with partner Atlas Energy in the Permian Basin area of Texas.

The General Motors senior vice president of software and service engineering details efforts to build a software-oriented culture, explains why the company eschewed Apple CarPlay and examines similarities between Apple and GM’s product-first focus.