The Road to Autonomy

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Lyft’s dramatic return to the big leagues of the autonomous vehicle industry through a surprise partnership with  Waymo  in Nashville, including fleet management, sending  Lyft  stock soaring 20% while Uber dropped 5%. Grayson and Walt examine the strategic implications of this non-e...

Qasar Younis , CEO and  Peter Ludwig , CTO, Co-Founders of  Applied Intuition  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss why Applied Intuition continues to be one of the most interesting companies in autonomy. The conversation explores Applied Intuition’s growing portfolio of partnerships, including a major deal with Komatsu and the launch of their...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the rapidly shifting landscape of AI inside of vehicles, exploring how xAI’s Grok and Google’s Gemini are shaping the future of in-vehicle experiences. Grayson and Walt debate whether these AI systems will remain as assistants limited to Q&A or evolve into agentic copilots capable of controlling eve...

Dean Foreman , Chief Economist,  Texas Oil & Gas Association  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how record-breaking global energy demand and Texas’s energy dominance are reshaping markets amid the AI revolution and shifting geopolitical dynamics.  With the Energy Information Administration (EIA) projecting consecutive oil demand records...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the new expansion announcements from both Waymo and Tesla, framing it as a “heavyweight fight”.  Waymo announced plans to expand to Denver and Seattle, with Denver set to become the first city where its fleet will include both Jaguar I-PACEs and Zeekrs. The company also gained regulatory approval t...

This week on Autonomy Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  marked the one-year anniversary of Autonomy Markets and discussed the reignited debate between LiDAR and vision-only after comments made by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi during an interview.  During the interview, Mr. Khosrowshahi stated that in the short term, a combination of camera, LiDAR, and radar is the...

Anshuman Saxena, Vice President and Head of ADAS/Autonomous Driving Products, Qualcomm joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Qualcomm’s Snapdragon autonomy strategy. Qualcomm’s automotive division is rapidly expanding, with revenue up 59% year-over-year to $959 million. At the center of this growth is the company’s Snapdragon Digital Chassis, a comprehensive automotive p...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss the significant operational challenges Waymo and Uber are currently experiencing in Atlanta and Nuro's Series E round. Waymo’s launch in Atlanta has gone anything but smooth. A shortage of vehicles and frequent rider pairing issues on Uber have sparked negative local media coverage, with Fox...

David Welch , Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss GM’s renewed interest in autonomous vehicles. From robotaxis to personally owned autonomous vehicles, GM is once again preparing to enter the autonomous vehicle. This time in a initiative led by Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson, GM is focusing on developing personally o...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss GM’s sudden return to autonomous vehicles, Waymo’s growing supply constraints, and the launch of Tensor Auto. A few months after shutting down Cruise, GM is once again re-entering the autonomous vehicle market, but this time with a twist. This time around the company will be focusing on deve...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Uber’s growing autonomous vehicle investments and why they won’t be modest.  While Uber publicly framed their autonomy spending as “modest” and emphasized share buybacks, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made it clear on the company’s Q2 2025 earnings call that more OEM partnerships and AV deals a...

Andrew Chapin , Chief Operating Officer,  Nuro  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Nuro’s three-way partnership with Uber and Lucid Motors, which will see Uber exclusively deploy the Lucid Gravity robotaxi powered by Nuro on their platform. In a deal that clearly validates their  bold pivot to licensing , Uber has committed to deploying 20,0...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s expansion to Dallas without Uber, instead partnering with Avis and renewing a relationship that dates back to 2017 and the emerging Tesla double standard.  Waymo’s multi-year partnership with Avis signals the company’s desire to maintain flexibility, rather than locking into exc...

Kevin Peterson , Co-Founder & CTO,  Bedrock Robotics  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the growing labor shortage in the construction industry and how Bedrock is developing autonomous construction equipment to help builders keep building. America’s construction industry is facing a crisis with a shortage of 500,000 workers delaying projects...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Tesla and Alphabet’s Q2 2025 earnings calls, Tesla’s growing robotaxi ambitions and the launch of Zoox’s limited fixed-route service in Las Vegas. Tesla’s Robotaxi expansion ambitions are growing, and on their Q2 2025 earnings call, Elon Musk disclosed that Tesla is looking to expand robotax...

Tim Bucher , Co-Founder & CEO,  Agtonomy  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how a 47-year-old California regulation is stalling the adoption of autonomous tractors and threatening the future of farming in the Golden State. Since his last appearance, Agtonomy has entered into a partnership with Kubota to develop autonomous tractors aimed at e...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss their driver-out ride with Avride, Nuro’s impressive deal with Lucid and Uber, and Waymo’s Austin depot operated by AVOMO.  While in Austin last week, Grayson and Walt met with AVride, experienced a fully autonomous ride in their Hyundai IONIQ 5, and spent time with the company’s manage...

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the future of autonomy. Is Waymo preparing to pivot away from owning and operating robotaxi fleets towards licensing the Waymo Driver to companies such as Toyota, and perhaps even Ford and GM? If Waymo were to fully pivot to a licensing model, it could establish a new model in wh...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  headed to Austin, Texas to experience Robotaxi firsthand. After spending the week in Austin and experiencing Robotaxi firsthand, we came away truly impressed. Tesla did it, they cracked full self-driving with a vision-only system. From our very first ride we noticed how the autonomous driving system...

Dean Foreman , Chief Economist,  Texas Oil & Gas Association  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how the powerful intersection of traditional energy and emerging technology are fueling the growth of AI data centers.  The Permian Basin with its layered geology and massive reserves continues to attract investment as this prolific oil and n...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s gradual move away from owning and operate a fleet of robotaxis, Moove’s growing fleet ownership ambitions and Ford’s LiDAR demands.  Moove, a company backed by Uber, is in the process of raising $1.2 billion in debt to purchase Waymo vehicles. Is this yet another signal that Way...

Qasar Younis , CEO and  Peter Ludwig , CTO, Co-Founders of  Applied Intuition  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Applied Intuition’s evolution from a tooling platform to a multi-domain vehicle intelligence powerhouse. As Applied Intuition continues to grow, they remain focused on staying paranoid, avoiding arrogance, and learning from compa...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Tesla’s robotaxi launch in Austin, OpenAI’s growing autonomous driving ambitions, Waymo’s future and Foxconn’s strategic partnership with Elektrobit. The launch of Tesla’s robotaxi has sparked polarized reactions with some hailing it as revolutionary, while others have focused on the safety...

Zach Rash , Co-Founder & CEO,  Coco Robotics  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the growing autonomous delivery market and how Coco is scaling operations to meet demand.  Coco Robotics has built and deployed thousands of cost-efficient, urban-optimized delivery robots designed for high-throughput in dense cities like Los Angeles, Miami,...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s return to the Big Apple, a revealing new Waymo rider survey, political grandstanding in Texas aimed at delaying Tesla’s robotaxi launch, and the emergence of potential new players in autonomous driving sector, Meta and OpenAI. Waymo announced plans to resume testing in New York City...