The Road to Autonomy

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 20,000 Nuro powered robotaxis globally...

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 exclusive partnerships. With Avis on...

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 by an average of two months and...

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 robotaxi service to Nevada, Florida, Ari...

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 easing the growing labor shortage...

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 management team. AVride’s engineering a...

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 which legacy OEMs become cont...

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 was confident, yet not risky. It...

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 natural gas region remains essent...

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 Waymo is preparing to shift away fro...

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 companies such as Microsoft to navigate...

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 attendant and the limited ODD (Op...

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, Chicago, and Helsinki. From ris...

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 this summer, the first time opera...

Kaity Fischer, Vice President, Commercial and Operations, Wayve joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Wayve is scaling their end-to-end AI autonomous driving system globally.

Wayve’s ability to operate autonomously across multiple countries and on both sides of the road without the need for pre-mapped environments or geo-fences is a significant competitive advantage. 

B...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the start of Tesla’s driver-out operations in Austin, the tenuous relationship between Waymo and Uber, and the UK’s pmomentum on autonomous vehicle regulation, while the EU remains at a standstill.

Now that Tesla is testing is testing driver-out operations, they are one step closer to launching commercial robotaxi operation...

Pete Bigelow, Senior Reporter, Automotive News joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the financial news media’s disconnect on autonomy, Uber’s doubling down on autonomy and Alphabet’s long-term plans for Waymo.

Financial TV news networks continue to misinterpret the autonomous vehicle market, often not understanding the dynamics, partnerships and individuals building the future of a...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk unpack the escalating feud between Elon Musk and President Donald J. Trump just days before Tesla’s highly anticipated robotaxi launch in Austin.

The brewing political tension introduces potential new regulatory and market risks for Tesla, especially given Elon Musk’s previous influence in The White House. While the full extent of ...

Jim Mullen, Executive Director, Council for Economic Resilience (CFER) joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the far-reaching economic benefits of automation and autonomy and how these technologies benefit every single member of society.

Autonomy is good for the economy. From national security and job creation to supply chain resiliency and lower inflation, automation and auton...