The Road to Autonomy

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and  Walter Piecyk  discuss Waymo’s mapping expansion to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), their continued Bay Area expansion and Tesla’s ambitious plans for launching a FSD Unsupervised.  As Waymo begins mapping SFO, there are still hurdles that the company has to overcome before offering commercial serv...

Adrienne Gildea , Deputy Executive Director,  Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how CVSA developed enhanced inspections and the positive impact that they will have on roadway safety.  CVSA is preparing for autonomous trucks to scale by working with the autonomous trucking industry, law enforceme...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s Bay Area expansion and what it means for the great highway and airport unlocks, our visit to  May Mobility  in Ann Arbor and Amazon’s struggles with Zoox.  Waymo has expanded its service area in the Bay Area by 50%, adding 27 square miles in Silicon Valley, for residents only at t...

Peter Ludwig , CTO & Co-Founder and  Jason Brown , General Manager-Government,  Applied Intuition  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the company’s acquisition of EpiSci and how they are developing all-domain autonomy solutions for defense applications. In December 2024, Applied Intuition acquired EpiSci to accelerate the growt...

This week on Autonomy   Markets,  Grayson Brulte  and Walter Piecyk discus Waymo’s launch in Austin, Alphabet’s strong commitment to Waymo and Hyundai’s robotaxi ambitions.  On March 5, Waymo launched exclusively on the Uber app in Austin. However, riders cannot guarantee a Waymo vehicle, as there is no dedicated Waymo tier in the app. This lack of certainty could dilute t...

Dean Foreman , Chief Economist,  Texas Oil & Gas Association  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Autonomy Economy podcast to discuss the current state the U.S. economy and the global oil and natural gas markets. Consumer debt in the U.S. is rising and that could have potential impacts on GDP. While the economic picture in the U.S. is uncertain at the moment, global oil demand i...

Gavin Jackson , CEO of  Oxa  joined  Grayson Brulte  on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Oxa’s approach to autonomy—universal autonomy.  Oxa specializes in industrial mobility applications within repetitive environments such as airports, ports, and logistics hubs, where driving patterns are predictable. When Oxa deployed autonomous vehicles at Heathrow Air...

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...