The Road to Autonomy

Mike Plasencia , Group Director, RyderVentures & New Product Strategy at  Ryder System, Inc.  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss how Ryder creates value through services for customers and partners.  The conversation begins with Mike discussing how Ryder became the central nervous system for  autonomous trucking . Ryder noticed the t...

Brett Fabbri , Head of Law Enforcement Policy and Highway Safety,  Kodiak Robotics  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss how law enforcement interacts with autonomous trucks. The conversation begins with Brett discussing his 30-year career in law enforcement and how a ride-along with his cousin led to a career in law enforcement. At that time I was...

Charlie Jatt , Head of Commercialization for Trucking, Waymo , joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss commercializing and scaling Waymo Via. The conversation begins with Charlie discussing why Waymo entered the autonomous trucking industry. The philosophy and the theory of our technology was we’re building a driver and that driver can be used for lots of...

Gil West , Chief Operating Officer,  Cruise  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss commercializing Cruise and why it’s their Wright Brothers moment. The conversation begins with Gil discussing Cruise’s road to commercialization. At a high level, we are making the pivot from an R&D company to commercial operations. – Gil West With a background as...

Greg Rodriguez , Mobility Policy Principal, Stantec joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss autonomous vehicle policy, federal infrastructure funding, and how both policy and funding impact the deployment of autonomous vehicles and trucks.  The conversation begins with Greg sharing his thoughts on the current state of autonomous vehicle policy at the federal...

Reilly Brennan , General Partner,  Trucks VC  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss investing in the future. The conversation begins with Reilly and Grayson discussing what is going to happen when consolidation begins in the autonomous vehicle industry. This is a period of consolidation because you have essentially a lot of the robo-taxi ideas turne...

Alan Ohnsman , Senior Editor,  Forbes  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the electrification of industrial logistics. The conversation begins with Alan and Grayson discussing who is going to win as multiple industries shift to electrification. Most of the attention has gone to say Tesla and the passenger car market. But what’s happening on the h...

Cheng Lu , President & CEO,  TuSimple  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss Driver Out and Intermodal 2.0. The conversation begins with Cheng reflecting on the last twelve months. From a traditional IPO to Driver Out, TuSimple has made incredible strides as the business and technology scale. Driver Out is one of our big milestones we...

Ariel Wolf , General Counsel,  Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss misconceptions in the marketplace as it relates to AV technology. The conversation begins with Ariel discussing the rebranding of the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets to the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association. [The brand] showca...

Sean Ackley , eMobility Segment Lead, Americas,  Hitachi  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why the electric vehicle industry is at the peak of the new gold rush. The conversation begins with Sean discussing how he first became interested in electric vehicles. From building a performance golf cart to electric race cars, he shares insight in...

Pete Bigelow , Senior Reporter, covering self-driving tech and the future of mobility,  Automotive News  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss Ford and the electrification of an iconic brand. The conversation begins with Grayson and Pete discussing the incredible performance of Ford under CEO Jim Farley in the public markets. As Ford electrifies the...

Jason Eichenholz , Co-Founder & CTO,  Luminar  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss optoelectronics, lasers and seeing around corners. The conversation begins with Jason telling the story of how he first became interested in imaging systems and optoelectronics during a physics demonstration he witnessed in high school. I vividly remember the da...

Finch Fulton , Vice President of Policy and Strategy,  Locomation  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the current state of autonomous trucking policy and why narratives shape reality. The conversation begins with Finch sharing his outlook for 2022 and what he is expecting to see in the autonomous trucking industry. The potential impact of the Apr...

Dustin Koehl , Senior Vice President Of Sales,  U.S. Xpress  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why U.S. Xpress is doubling down on innovation and what the future of the trucking industry looks like in the coming years. The conversation begins with Dustin sharing an overview of U.S. Xpress and why the company is constantly doubling down on innova...

Russ Mitchell  who covers the rapidly changing global auto industry (with special emphasis on California, including Tesla, electric vehicles, and driverless cars) at The Los Angeles Times once again joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss what is self-driving. The conversation begins with Grayson posing the question to Russ: are we in an electric vehi...

David Welch , Detroit Bureau Chief,  Bloomberg  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss commercializing autonomous vehicles and the growth of the electric vehicle market in the United States. The conversation begins with David sharing his thoughts on the current state of the autonomous vehicle industry. Right now you are kind of seeing a rac...

Dirk Smillie , Author,  The Business of Tomorrow: The Visionary Life of Harry Guggenheim : From Aviation and Rocketry to the Creation of an Art Dynasty joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss Harry Guggenheim and the role he played helping to usher in the future of aviation. The conversation begins with Dirk discussing who Harry Guggenheim was and the...

Ellen Carey , Global Head of Sustainability,  Circulor  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the global supply chain and the importance of tracking commodities in real-time. The conversation begins with Ellen and Grayson discussing the sustainability of the global supply chain. We are thinking about our supply chains at more levels and more deeply...

Chris Anderson , President, Sala Consulting joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the Vegas Experience and why mobility companies can offer unique immersive autonomous vehicle experiences only in Vegas. The conversation begins with Chris discussing the current state of the Las Vegas Economy. It’s recovering quickly. It’s going really well. If you go down to t...

Matthew Lipka , Head Of Policy,  Nuro  and  Bert Kaufman , Head of Public Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Zoox joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why autonomy and electrification make the future of mobility and delivery possible. The conversation begins with Matthew and Bert discussing what the  SAVE Coalition  is and why the coalit...

Dr. Dean Bushey , Vice President, Global Social Innovation Business,  Hitachi  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss an all-electric vehicle future. The conversation begins with Dean discussing his 25-year career in the United States Air Force and his first-hand experience with unmanned aircraft. When you fly a drone, you actually get combat hours....

Annant Patel , Director,  Koch Disruptive Technologies , and  Gautam Narang , CEO & Co-Founder,  Gatik  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss investing in growth. The conversation begins with Gautam discussing why he decided to run Gatik as a business from day one and why the team focused on the middle mile. When we started Gatik we de...

Greg Rogers , Public Policy Manager,  Nuro  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss the future of local commerce. The conversation begins with Greg discussing Nuro’s plan for the new manufacturing facility and test track in Las Vegas, Nevada. The facility will employ 250 individuals and generate as much as $2.2 billion in economic benefits for Nevada...

Ernest Huffman , Aviation Planning and Education Program Manager,  North Central Texas Council of Governments  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why North Texas is the home of aviation innovation. The conversation begins with Ernest sharing a story about how a high school teacher changed his life and put him on the course of becoming a pilot, wh...

Don Burnette , Co-Founder & CEO of  Kodiak Robotics  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss why trucking is the right problem to solve. The conversation begins with Don discussing the early days of the Google Self-Driving Project. The early days were really an exciting time for those of us who were aware of the self-driving industry, which was ve...