The Road to Autonomy

Michael Brandt , Co-Founder and CEO, RC Mowers joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss autonomous mowers and how they unlock scale for an industry that is labor constrained. In the landscape industry, turnover is structural, the work is hard, and skilled employees tend to stay away, making this an ideal industry to deploy autonomy that unlocks scale and frees up human reso...

This week on Autonomy Markets , Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s undisputed global lead, the growing consumer-driven shift toward supervised ADAS (Level 2++), and autonomous trucking’s inflection point. After spending the week in Silicon Valley, Walt shared his on the ground observations amidst the backdrop of Waymo’s noisy week where the company paused service in several cities an...

This week on Autonomy Signals , Grayson Brulte and Rob Grant discuss the BUILD America 250 Act, XPeng’s mass-produced pure vision robotaxi , and the ESA-China SMILE mission reaching orbit. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Sam Graves and Ranking Member Rick Larsen released the text of the BUILD America 250 Act, a bipartisan five-year surface transportation reauthorization...

This week on Autonomy Markets , Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s newly announced expansion ahead of the World Cup, the suddenly accelerating deterioration of the Uber/Waymo relationship, and the partnerships that actually matter for Uber’s autonomous future. As Waymo expanded their U.S. service area by 1,400 square miles across 11 cities, Uber continued to amplify both their direct...

This week on  Autonomy Signals presented by KPMG, Grayson Brulte  and  Rob Grant  discuss Uber’s policy play to slow the deployment of robotaxis, BYD’s costly market share gain, and Unitree going sci-fi with a production-ready Mecha robot. Uber  recently released a policy paper titled  Unlocking the Promise of Autonomy  that emphasized that the transition to auto...

Angus Pacala , Co-Founder and CEO,  Ouster  joined  Grayson Brulte  to discuss the launch of the native color REV8 LiDAR and how Ouster is positioning itself as the foundational sensing and perception layer for the physical AI economy. The  LiDAR industry  is currently undergoing a continual thinning out as the market shakes out and separates companies with strong mar...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Grayson’s Las Vegas field work riding in  Zoox  and Motional robotaxis,  Uber’s  earnings and the path to driver-out, and autonomous trucking earnings. The first thing Grayson did when he landed in Vegas was try to order a Zoox, but the service was not available until 11 AM and when it fi...

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...