The Road to Autonomy

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss Tesla’s Unsupervised Robotaxi expansion to Dallas and Houston, Wisk Aero doubling its Gen 6 flight test fleet, and Meta’s acquisition of  Assured Robot Intelligence  (ARI). Tesla recently launched  Unsupervised Robotaxi in Houston  and Dallas without chase vehicles, a structural s...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Bot Auto’s fully autonomous commercial run from Houston to Dallas, Aurora’s expanded partnership with Hirschbach, and Uber’s CTO publicly criticizing  Waymo  on X over safety. With  Bot Auto  completing a 231 mile commercial paid run with no human in the cab, no safety driver, and no obse...

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss the WeRide and Lenovo autonomous vehicle partnership, Pronto’s first deal under Atoms with Mariana Minerals, and Bot Auto’s 231 mile driver out commercial run from Houston to Dallas. WeRide and Lenovo recently announced a five year non-binding partnership at Auto China 2026 to deploy 200,000 autonomo...

Taylor Brownstein , Director, Technology Investment Banking,  TD Cowen  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Wall Street is funding the  autonomy economy . The autonomous vehicle and truck markets are currently experiencing a healthy rebound from the 2021 to 2023 hype cycle, driven by real commercialization, the Physical AI tailwind, and a...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s dedicated Supercharger build-out for  Robotaxi  in Arizona, Kodiak’s autonomous trucking operations in the Permian Basin, and Mobileye’s defensive posture on their Q1 earnings call. With Tesla launching unsupervised robotaxis in Dallas and Houston this week, the conversation evolves into a...

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss autonomous military cargo helicopters, Caterpillar’s acquisition of Monarch Tractor’s intellectual property, and the termination of the  PlusAI  and Churchill Capital IX SPAC merger. Airbus recently conducted its fourth flight test of the MQ-72C autonomous cargo helicopter for the United St...

Kelly Smith , Lead Systems Engineer for Autonomy,  Kodiak Robotics  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss deploying autonomous trucks at NASA speed. Drawing on 13 years of experience engineering autonomy systems at NASA, including guidance software for the Orion spacecraft that flew to the moon and back on Artemis II, Kelly is applying aerospace-gra...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s expansion in Florida, Uber’s continued investments in physical assets, and the potential for agentic AI to disrupt traditional rideshare apps. With  Waymo  opening service to the general public in Miami and Orlando this week, the conversation evolves into a deeper discussion around Disney’s...

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss Ukraine’s emerging role in the  autonomy economy , the macroeconomic environment for Physical AI, train automation, and accelerating warehouse automation. Ukraine has achieved the largest real-world stress testing of autonomous systems in recorded history, deploying ground and aerial systems for...

David Millard , Co-Founder & CEO of  Azalea Robotics  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss building and deploying autonomous robotics baggage handling robots in airports. The company’s flagship robot, the ARC One, is a mobile, cage-free autonomous system that utilizes suction gripper technology and computer vision to pick, scan, and place bags...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Uber and VW validating the ID. Buzz in Los Angeles as they prepare for commercial service, Europe’s first commercial robotaxi service, and Waymo’s New York City dilemma. With Uber and VW’s MOIA conducting on-road validation testing for the ID. Buzz in Los Angeles, the conversation evolves into a deeper discu...

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss the Artemis II mission, Amazon’s coordinated embodied AI acquisitions, HD Hyundai’s Avikus DNV maritime autonomy certification from Norway, and declining AI bubble odds on Polymarket. NASA’s Artemis II crew traveled 252,756 miles from Earth, surpassing Apollo 13 by over 4,000 miles. An achievement th...

Greg Okopal , Co-Founder & COO,  Overland AI  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the founding of Overland AI at University of Washington. Early on, Overland AI participated in the  DARPA RACER program , growing from a company operating out of shipping containers at a rally driving school in Snoqualmie, Washington, to recently raising a $...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss  Waymo  expanding service to the San Antonio Airport, the company’s need for another OEM partner and Baidu’s mishap in China. With  Waymo  opening service at the San Antonio Airport complete with curbside drop offs and a short walk to the designated rideshare pickup area, the conversation...

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss China’s $400 billion robotics investment, surging Chinese auto exports with advanced autonomous driving systems (ADAS), and rising compute costs that could reshape the  autonomy economy . China is preparing to invest $400 billion in robotics this year as the country looks to further strengthen i...

Martyn Briggs , Director, Thematic Investing Strategy, Bank of America joined  Grayson Brulte  on The  Road to Autonomy  podcast to discuss why Physical AI is no longer a concept on the horizon but an era that continues to emerge across humanoids, autonomous vehicles, drones, and industrial robotics. AI has left the chat, and is moving from digital text-based intelligence to th...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk headed to Dallas to attend Forward Fort Worth. While in town, they rode in several Waymos and in Uber’s autonomous vehicle partners Avride and May Mobility, and discovered two Waymo depots in Dallas. The Waymo driver in Dallas was noticeably more cautious than in the Bay Area or Miami, but overall a great experience...

This week on  Autonomy Signals ,  Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss Tesla Optimus delays driven by China’s rare earth export controls, the EU’s push to slow AI regulation and what it means for autonomous vehicles, and Waymo’s potential expansion into Canada. China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has classified humanoid robot actuator componen...

Tete Xiao , VP of Engineering and AI,  Bot Auto  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy to discuss the fundamental shift from virtual AI to the physical AI required for commercial  autonomous trucking . Tete co-authored Segment Anything, the landmark paper that ushered in the era of specific models to an era of foundation models that generalize across large segmen...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss NVIDIAs autonomous driving ambitions, Uber's Rivian robotaxi deal, and what all of these deals will eventually mean for the robotaxi market. It appears that NVIDIA is aiming to become the Android of autonomous driving, signing up OEMs and positioning itself as a platform provider while insisting it is not th...

Danny Bernstein , Founder & CEO,  Reservoir  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Physical AI and the growing role it is playing in agriculture. Currently, less than 2% of this high-value agricultural sector is automated, creating a significant growth opportunity that Reservoir is positioned to capture through a startup incubator specifically d...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss their field work in Austin, Texas, where they rode in a Tesla Unsupervised Robotaxi and walked the Cybercab production line at Giga Texas. Together they experienced Tesla's unsupervised roboataxi operations in Austin, specifically the moment they hailed and rode in a fully unsupervised Tesla Robotaxi with no...

Matthew Carey, Co-Founder & CEO, Teradar, joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the company's emergence from stealth with $150 million in funding and the creation of a brand-new category of terahertz (THz) sensors. The operational backbone of Teradar’s strategy is a Terahertz Detection and Ranging (Rad-AR) approach that fills the gap between LiDAR and radar on the el...

This week on  Autonomy Markets , Grayson Brulte and Walt Piecyk discuss Grayson’s recent field work in Silicon Valley and Walt’s observations in London. Together they examine Waymo’s technical milestones, specifically Grayson’s first-hand experience on the highway and at SFO. During Grayson’s ride from SFO to Mountain View, he noted the vehicle’s smooth performance across three lanes, its str...

Igal Raichelgauz, Founder & CEO, Autobrains joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the company's strategic partnership with VinFast and the development of an affordable, scalable robo-car. The operational backbone of Autobrains’ strategy is a Thinking AI approach that utilizes an agentic architecture rather than traditional monolithic models. By using a library of spe...