The Road to Autonomy

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...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Uber’s new Autonomous Vehicle Solutions initiative, Waymo’s growing markets, and the growth of Physical AI powered by NVIDIA. As Uber’s stock languishes in the low seventies due to investor overhang about the future of autonomy, the company announced Uber Autonomous Solutions, a new initiative to support the growth...

Jay Iyengar , EVP, Chief Technology and Strategic Sourcing Officer,  Oshkosh  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Oshkosh’s approach to autonomy and the development of physical AI across their diverse industrial technology portfolio. The operational backbone of Oshkosh’s strategy is a hybrid approach targeted towards moments of autonomy where auto...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk unpack a wave of developments reshaping the autonomous vehicle landscape. Data surfacing from a follow-up to a recent Senate hearing reveals that Waymo currently operates 3,000 autonomous vehicles supported by only 70 remote assistance agents worldwide. Grayson calls the ratio definitive proof of Waymo's technology lead, while Walt ra...

Grayson Brulte went on location to Miami to inspect Waymo's infrastructure buildout across the city, uncovering two depots that reveal the company's ambitious plans to scale to thousands of vehicles in South Florida. The first depot, located adjacent to Miami International Airport, has not yet broken ground but sits on a large parcel with significant room for expansion. A service road connects the...

Stuart Young , Program Manager, Tactical Technology Office,  DARPA  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss DARPA’s RACER (Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency) Program and the development of high-speed autonomous vehicles capable of navigating unstructured off-road terrain without maps or GPS. The operational backbone of this prog...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss whether  Waymo  has finally solved the supply constraint question following reports of a deal for 50,000 Hyundai vehicles by 2028. They break down the economics, theorizing a $50,000 per-vehicle cost that likely includes line-fit sensors, a price point that Grayson argues destroys the bear case tha...

Jeremy Bird, Executive Vice President, Global Growth at Lyft joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the company’s strategic partnership with Waymo in Nashville and the deployment of a hybrid network that integrates human drivers with autonomous vehicles. The operational backbone of this strategy is FlexDrive. A best-in-class operation that manages depots, charging, and ma...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s repricing of the robotaxi market with a $16 billion raise at a $126 billion valuation, Uber’s defensive Myths and Realities earnings supplement, and the launch of a new segment, The Pit Stop. The conversation heats up as Walt and Grayson debate Uber’s claim that autonomous vehicle growth is not a zero-sum game, with Gr...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk are joined by their first-ever guest, David Moss, to discuss his 12,961-mile zero-intervention drive across the country on Tesla FSD, the reality of the Unsupervised Robotaxi rollout in Austin, and the commercial viability of LiDAR sensors in consumer vehicles. The conversation heats up as Walt questions David, a Li...

Dean Foreman , Chief Economist at the  Texas Oil and Gas Association  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the evolving landscape of global oil markets and the critical intersection of natural gas and artificial intelligence. With sanctions lifted on Venezuela, the conversation analyzes the flow of heavy crude to the US Gulf Coast, noting the poten...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s LiDAR controversy following an incident in a Santa Monica school zone, the potential of a mega merger between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and Waabi’s $750 million capital raise to pivot into robotaxis. The conversation heats up as Walt and Grayson debate the efficacy of LiDAR versus camera-only approache...

David Liu, CEO of PlusAI joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discus taking the company public and their strategic roadmap for commercializing autonomous trucking. As Plus AI prepares to complete their merger with Churchill Capital Corp IX in early February, the conversation explores the shift from fleet trials to an asset-light software model that empowers Traton to build fact...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla officially removing safety attendants from Robotaxis in Austin, Waymo’s commercial launch in Miami, and Serve Robotics’ strategic acquisition of Diligent Robotics. It finally happened. Tesla has removed safety attendants from a select group of vehicles in Austin. While this initial fleet is limited and...

Sergey Litvinenko, Co-Founder & CEO of Koop, joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the financial and operational structures required to insure fleets of personally owned autonomous vehicles. As Tesla prepares to scale the Cybercab in 2026, the conversation explores the shift from personal ownership to personally owned fleets, where individuals form compan...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss New York Governor Hochul’s bill to legalize autonomous vehicles in New York, with New York City notably carved out, Uber’s changing  Waymo partnership language and Waymo’s upcoming expansion to Sydney.  In New York, autonomous vehicles could be coming to state roads, but not New York City, as Mayor...

Don Burnette, Founder & CEO, Kodiak joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss taking Kodiak public and why the company's strategy has always been about de-risking autonomy with optionality.  As part of their de-risking strategy, Kodiak has deployed an asset-light business model where partners including Atlas Energy Solutions own and operate the trucks, allowing Kodi...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss CES 2026, Zoox’s performance on the Las Vegas Strip and Uber’s potential long-term autonomy plans.  Zoox’s performance was one of those hopefully “only in Las Vegas” moments, as the vehicle was seen stopping in the middle of traffic and blocking entrances on a regular basis. Which raises the questi...

This week on  Autonomy Markets ,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss the fallout from Waymo’s crisis management failure in San Francisco, where a power outage left hundreds of vehicles stranded and blocking intersections throughout the city.  Waymo’s prolonged silence on the incident and lack of transparency regarding what truly happened could lead to a decline in public...