The Road to Autonomy

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...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s robotaxi launch in June 12th in Austin, Waymo’s relationship with Uber and Senator Lummis’ Autonomous Vehicle Advancement Act. 

Tesla’s initial robotaxi deployment in Austin will launch with just 10 Model Ys operating within a limited operational design domain (ODD). While modest in scale, investor interest is ...

Chuck Price, President, AI Kinetics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the current state of autonomous trucking. 

From the continued speculation that Volvo is shutting down Volvo Autonomous Solutions (VAS) in North America to PACCAR’s deafening silence following Aurora’s driver-out launch, the autonomous trucking industry is navigating a period of uncertainty. 

Mean...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk preview Tesla’s upcoming FSD robotaxi launch, Waymo’s continued interest in personally-owned autonomous vehicles and Aurora’s stumbles. 

As we approach June, all eyes are on Austin in anticipation of Tesla’s highly awaited robotaxi launch. With real-world testing already underway, Tesla is taking a measured yet impactful appro...

Ali Kashani, Co-Founder & Serve Robotics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how sidewalk delivery robots are transforming the economics and experience of last-mile delivery.

Ali shares the origin story of Serve Robotics, which was incubated within Postmates and later spun out of Uber into a publicly traded company. What began as a simple idea, delivering small items with small autonom...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s recall, Tesla’s most recent NHTSA letter and Sterling Anderson’s surprise move to join GM as EVP & Chief Product Officer.

For the first time ever, Waymo had a fleet-wide recall after a series of minor collisions involving stationary objects, a recall that was fixed with a simple over-the-air update. As Waymo updated their vehicles, Tesla was...

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Waymo’s growing competitive advantage in the market, Uber’s strategy and the many challenges facing Tesla.

Waymo continues to strengthen its market share in the robotaxi sector, recently announcing a strategic partnership with Magna to significantly expand autonomous vehicle manufacturing capabilities. While Uber le...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the abrupt resignation of Aurora Co-Founder Sterling Anderson, why Waymo needs more vehicles and the continued fragmentation of the robotaxi market. 

Mr. Anderson’s sudden departure sent shockwaves through the industry, raising critical questions about his next move and the potential impact on Aurora’s partnership with...

Earl Adams Jr., Vice President for Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Plus joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how autonomous trucking is poised to transform local communities, economically, socially, and operationally. 

In Texas, Plus is actively working to deploy fully autonomous trucks in partnership with International by 2027. As part of the preparation for launch, Earl ...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s potential new partnership with Toyota, the launch of Aurora’s driver-out commercial operations and Uber’s continued effort to challenge the autonomy duopoly. 

On Tuesday, Waymo announced a potential partnership with Toyota to develop personally-owned autonomous vehicles, confirming a business pivot in...

Sergey Litvinenko, Co-Founder & CEO, Koop joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the emergence of autonomous vehicle fleets and why the fleet model is becoming the model for scaling autonomous vehicles globally. 

In the autonomous vehicle market there are new emerging business models for owning and operating the fleets from leasing to REIT-like structures to vertically ...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's potential pivot away from HD maps, their 250,000 fully autonomous rides per week milestone, Tesla's pending robotaxi launch and Aurora's long-promised driver-out launch.

In a post announcing the milestone on X, Waymo used the term "generalizable Waymo Driver”, potentially hinting that the company may move away from HD maps. Could Waymo be m...

Christian John, President, TIER IV North America joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how TIER IV is scaling open-source autonomous driving platform software globally. 

Tier IV is using the foundational elements of Autoware, an open-source autonomous driving software stack to build scalable, modular reference platforms for everything from robotaxis to autonomous buse...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Kodiak starting the process to become a publicly traded company, the anxiety leading up to Aurora’s driver-out commercial launch and Lyft’s expansion into Europe through the acquisition of FREENOW.

Kodiak has officially filed to go public in a $2.5 billion SPAC deal, backed by a $100 million PIPE and a 100-truck order&...