The Road to Autonomy

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...

Angus Pacala , Co-Founder & CEO,  Ouster  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Ouster’s digital LiDAR technology is “enabling autonomy for everything” across traffic control systems, security, robotics, and autonomous vehicles Founded in 2015 with a vision of “autonomy for everything,” Ouster has emerged as the largest Western pro...

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...

Finch Fulton , Government Affairs and Public Policy Advisor,  K&L Gates  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss autonomous vehicle policy under the Trump administration, China’s technological threat, and the path to establishing a national autonomous vehicle framework. A national framework is essential to provide regulatory certainty fo...

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 earning...

Shahrukh Kazmi , Chief Product Officer,  Volvo Autonomous Solutions  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the company’s comprehensive approach to building an autonomous transport-as-a-service business.  Volvo is leveraging its decades of trucking expertise to develop a new business model that is built around an autonomous truck. Inst...

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 a...

Xiaodi Hou , Founder & CEO of  Bot Auto  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how DeepSeek is transforming AI development and its potential impact on autonomous driving. Dr. Hou views DeepSeek as an engineering breakthrough rather than a scientific one—challenging traditional approaches to AI model development. Unlike many companies i...

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 timelin...

Pete Bigelow , Senior Reporter, Automotive News and  Sergey Litvinenko , Co-Founder & CEO of  Koop  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the insurance challenges surrounding SAE Level 3 vehicles and how the insurance requirements will change with higher levels of automation.  In this in-depth discussion, Grayson, Pete and Se...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk explored the potential impacts of President Trump's administration on the autonomous vehicle and truck industries. With tensions brewing between labor interests and technology companies, the hosts analyzed who might ultimately gain ground from a policy perspective. At Davos, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said autonomous vehicle technolog...

Peter Vaughan Schmidt , CEO,  Torc  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Torc is preparing to launch commercial operations in Texas. Torc’s strategic relocation from Albuquerque to Fort Worth, Texas was a move that aligned with changing market dynamics. The regulatory environment combined with a growing demand for freight movement, makes Texas...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk headed to Washington, D.C. where they attended an event held by The Council for Economic Resilience that focused on the future of autonomous vehicle and truck policy. With President Trump being sworn into office next week, there is an opportunity to usher in the golden age of autonomy.  To usher in the golden age of autonomy, the...

David Welch , Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Waymo won the robotaxi race as Detroit walked away two times. There are major shifts happening in the autonomous vehicle industry as Waymo scales up operations and Tesla prepares to introduce the  Cybercab . At CES last week, Jensen Huang, Co-founder & CEO of&nbsp...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss how the momentum has shifted in the autonomous vehicle and truck industries after NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang declared it will become the first multi-trillion dollar robotics industry at CES 2025.  While the momentum shift has been significant, legacy OEMs are facing headwinds and long-term challenges as Ford shutdown Argo AI...

Michael Morris, Director of Transportation, North Central Texas Council of Governments (NCTCOG) and  Nick Konen , Director of Strategic Development, Hillwood joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Texas is building the future of autonomous freight and supply chains.  AllianceTexas Smart Port in North Texas represents a groundbreaking vision for t...

In the first episode of Autonomy Markets in 2025, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the ever-evolving landscape of autonomous vehicles and the growth of big tech. Waymo’s technical advancements and steady expansion made the company the clear leader in robotaxis in 2024.  While Waymo cemented their role as the leader in robotaxis, Tesla is nipping at their heels as the company prepares...

David Liu , CEO & Co-Founder,  Plus  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Plus’ global vision for autonomous trucking. Plus is taking a global approach to autonomous trucking as a technology enabler rather than a fleet operator with three global OEM partnerships with  Traton Group , Hyundai Commercial Vehicle, and IVECO. These partnerships...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla FSD 13, autonomous trucking’s regularity roadblocks and Waymo’s path to offering service at theSan Francisco International (SFO) Airport.  Tesla’s FSD 13 is as a major technical leap forward. While we have been impressed with its more natural driving style and improved responsiveness to traffic flow, it’s not ready...

Pete Bigelow , Senior Reporter, Automotive News joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Detroit’s future in autonomy. When GM shutdown Cruise, did they end Detroit’s autonomous future? GM has a pattern of getting to the one-yard line and fumbling with innovations like the EV1, skateboard architecture and now Cruise. As the fundamental challenges...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Apple’s potential return to the robotaxi market through Foxconn. If Foxconn is successful in acquiring Nissan, it would create a path for Apple to re-enter the autonomous vehicle sector.  Rather than building their own autonomous driving system from the ground-up, Apple could partner with  Wayve  to power the au...

Edwin Olson , Co-Founder & CEO,  May Mobility  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss May Mobility’s strategic expansion into Japan through partnerships with Toyota and NTT and their plans to launch with Lyft in Atlanta in 2025. May Mobility is focused on creating scalable, low-power autonomous vehicles that are profitable. One of the keys to May...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the dramatic turn of events that led GM to abruptly shut down Cruise, just days before a planned driver-out launch in Houston. The decision made by CEO Mary Barra, reportedly stems from fears of another incident. With the decision to pull the plug on Cruise, GM burnt $9 billion of investment dollars with nothing to show for it...

Andrew Chapin , Chief Operating Officer,  Nuro  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Nuro’s bold pivot to licensing their autonomous driving stack instead of scaling their autonomous robot delivery business.  As part of the strategic pivot, Nuro has developed the Nuro Driver, which can drive on surface streets and is designed to be adaptable a...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's expansion to Miami, Uber and Lyft's future in the era of autonomy and Tesla's releases of FSD 13. Waymo is expanding to Miami in 2025 without one of their partners—Uber. Instead, Waymo chose Moove as their fleet management partner. Could this signal something more broad, as Moove is also taking over the fleet managemen...