The Road to Autonomy

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...

Tim Bucher , Co-Founder & CEO,  Agtonomy  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how autonomy, AI and robotics can solve the global food crisis.  There is a global food shortage that is only projected to grow because of labor concerns. In 2023, over 281.6 million people in 59 countries faced high levels of acute food insecurity. Autonomy, AI...

This week Tesla unveiled their fleet API which could be a precursor to Tesla introducing a Cybercab service with 3rd party fleet operators. The company also begun the process of strategically positioning Cybercabs in showrooms, malls around the world and at high-profile events such as Art Basel in Miami. Tesla is effectively using these displays as a form of brand advertising. While brand advertis...

Daniel Goff , Director of External Affairs, Kodiak joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss what the autonomous trucking industry needs from Washington, D.C. in order to scale commercial operations.  Autonomous trucking regulations are often misunderstood. Contrary to popular belief, the legal and policy frameworks for deploying autonomous trucks on U....

A significant shift in autonomous vehicle policy appears imminent with President-elect Trump’s plans to implement a national autonomous vehicle framework. Key cabinet appointments, including Congressman Duffy for Transportation Secretary and Pam Bondi for Attorney General, signal strong support for autonomy.  The incoming administration is strategically positioning pro-autonomy officials, wit...

Pete Bigelow , Senior Reporter, Automotive News joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast the potential implications of Donald J. Trump’s second term as U.S. President on the advancement and commercialization of autonomous vehicles.  With significant deregulation anticipated in Trump’s second term, there is optimism about the “golden age” of autonomy that cou...

In this episode of Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the Waymo’s public launch in LA, Zoox’s debut in San Francisco and the emergence of Bot Auto.  This week Waymo removed the waitlist and opened the service to the public in Los Angeles in an 80 square mile area. Even though the public can now ride in the vehicles, there are extended wait times...

Bibhrajit Halder , Founder & CEO,  Safe AI  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the growth of autonomous mining and construction.  The surging demand for autonomous equipment in mining and construction is being driven partly by severe labor shortages and potential productivity gains in the range of 20-25%. Episode Chapters 0:00 Current St...

The election of Donald J. Trump as the 47th President of the United States could dramatically reshape the autonomous vehicle industry, with Elon Musk positioned as a key influence in the new administration. A national framework for autonomous vehicles and trucks is expected to be a top priority, potentially overriding state-specific regulations like California’s strict regulations.  Episode C...

Sergey Litvinenko , Co-Founder & CEO,  Koop  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss insuring personally owned autonomous vehicles beginning with the Tesla Cybercab.  Insuring autonomous vehicles without steering wheels and pedals presents unprecedented challenges that could potentially halt widespread adoption if the insurance is not figured...

In this episode of Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s new EMMA model (End-to-End Multimodal Model) for Autonomous Driving, their increased weekly ridership and how a shortage of skilled mechanics and technicians could slow down the growth of the Waymo One service.  As Waymo grows their service, Zoox is now preparing to join the party and...

Sam Abidi , President, Apex Advisors joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the rapidly evolving off-road autonomy market, its unique dynamics and why the market is full of opportunity.  Autonomy is transforming off-road industries, from sprawling mine sites to vast  agricultural fields  and busy construction sites. As traditional equipment manu...

In this episode of Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the opening of the autonomy IPO market and investors increasing desire to own autonomous vehicle companies.  On October 23rd, Tesla’s stock rallied 20% following earnings that beat the street and Elon Musk’s continued commentary about Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions. WeRide completed its NASDAQ IP...

Xiaodi Hou, Founder & CEO, Bot Auto joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss his plans for building and scaling a profitable autonomous trucking company. In a revealing conversation Dr. Xiaodi candidly discusses his departure from TuSimple and the founding of Bot Auto, offering candid insights into lessons learned, decisions he made and why his new approach to building...

In this episode of Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the details emerging from Tesla’s robotaxi unveiling at We, Robot. Tesla’s robotaxi is projected to have a 200-mile range with FSD 13 powering Full Self-Driving Unsupervised.  Could FSD 13 be Tesla’s breakthrough autonomy moment? Or will it be a later version of FSD? Later the conversation sh...

Pete Bigelow , Senior Reporter, Automotive News joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the latest developments in the autonomous vehicle industry including the introduction of Tesla’s Cybercab, Waymo’s expansion and the growth of robotaxis.  On 10/10 Tesla unveiled Cybercab, a two passenger robotaxi as Waymo ramps up operations in multiple citie...

In this episode of Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Tesla’s We Robot event, an event that Grayson has dubbed as “Autonomy Disneyland” and the markets mixed market reaction to the event. While the We Robot event was impressive and Disneyesque, it fell short on providing concrete details about timelines, financial projections, and technological progr...

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joined Grayson Brulte on TheRoad to Autonomy podcast to discuss Ford's BlueCruise price cut and GM's burgeoning competition with Tesla for personally owned autonomous vehicles.  Ford continues to face headwinds without an autonomous driving partner as GM prepares to once again commercialize Cruise and Tesla prepares to introduce the robotaxi on 10/...

In this episode of Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Tesla’s highly anticipated 10/10 We Robot event and what could be announced. Could Optimus have a friend? Could Tesla introduce Full Self-Driving (Supervised) for Tesla Semi? Will the robotaxi be a two passenger vehicle? There are lots of questions that will be answered next week live on the Warne...