The Road to Autonomy

Hugh Nguyen, Partner, Automotive Technology & Mobility, KPMG and Lerrel Pinto, Co-Founder, Assured Robot Intelligence (ARI) joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss why the immediate future of humanoid robotics lies in enterprise applications, rather than consumer homes.

Episode Chapters

0:00 Humanoid Robot Market

6:44 Humanoid Due Diligence

9:40 Humanoid Value Chain

12:08 Humanoids Size and Hands

16:52 Building Humanoids

18:52 Humanoid Personalities

20:24 Managing Humanoid Risk

22:24 Humanoid Fleets

25:36 Humanoid Use Cases

29:58 China

33:20 Humanoid Policy

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This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Uber and WeRide's fully autonomous launch in Abu Dhabi, marking Uber's first robotaxi deployment without a safety driver outside the United States.

On WeRide's earnings, the company announced a fleet of 1,600 autonomous vehicles with 750 robotaxis, while Pony.ai announced plans to triple its fleet to 3,000 by end of next year through its Bolt partnership. As Chinese robotaxi companies expand globally, the scaling question emerges: who grows the fastest?

It was another big week for Waymo as the California DMV approved a massive service area...

Mark Seeger, Founder & Co-CEO, Glydways joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how a mesh network of private, on-demand autonomous pods can solve global urban congestion at a fraction of the cost of traditional transit.

While today’s narrative currently centers around robotaxis, the real breakthrough may come from rethinking the physics and economics of mass transit through disaggregation. Instead of relying on infrastructure-steered legacy rail systems that lose money on every ride, Glydways has developed an autonomous pod system that utilizes lightweight, pedestrian-grade infrastructure at roughly 10% of the cost of light rail. In oth...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s accelerated nationwide expansion with new markets, Minneapolis, Tampa, New Orleans, Miami, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, and Orlando getting ready to come online, while breaking down and coin Waymo’s Six Stages of Autonomy.

As Waymo expands, competition is brewing in Dallas where Avride in partnership with Uber and Lyft in partnership with Mobileye will begin to operate commercial robotaxi services later this year and into next year, as Dallas begins to emerge as a major robotaxi market.

Beyond Waymo, the episode explores broader industry...

Hugh Nguyen, Partner, Automotive Technology & Mobility, KPMG joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the emerging wave of autonomous vehicle partnerships, the hidden value in fleet operations, and the coming M&A consolidation that will reshape the industry.

As the autonomous vehicle ecosystem accelerates through a phase of rapid partnership formation, the real value lies “below the line” with fleet operations, depot management, safety protocols, and operational expertise that rarely makes headlines. 

While the market fixates on vehicle counts and technology partnerships, the proprietary knowledge of how to actually deploy and scale rob...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s great highway unlock, their Bay Area expansion to 260 square miles and the launch of commercial service at the San Jose Airport.

Despite the expansion, Waymo remains sharply vehicle-constrained. Bloomberg reported this week that the company is operating roughly 1,000 vehicles in the Bay Area, 700 in Los Angeles, 500 in Phoenix, 200 in Austin, and just 100 in Atlanta, for a total fleet of approximately 2,500 vehicles spread across all markets.

In the autonomous trucking market, Kodiak continues to demonstrate that the economics work. With 10 fully driverless trucks generating...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s expansion into three new markets, Uber’s role in autonomy and Lyft’s growing infrastructure ambitions. 

Beneath the headlines, Tesla is aiming to once again reshape the entire autonomous driving industry with their AI5 chip, FSD Unsupervised deployment, and the expansion of their insurance business. As Tesla continues to focus on what’s next, Uber is sending mixed messages to the market while engineers across Silicon Valley begin exploring alternatives to Nvidia’s GPUs. 

Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Walt discuss what happens when...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss NVIDIA’s ever expanding autonomy ambitions and the fracturing relationship between Waymo and Uber, which may signal the end of one of the industry’s most-watched partnerships. 

Jensen Huang’s latest GTC announcements further signaled that NVIDIA is moving beyond supplying compute to potentially building their own full autonomy stack and licensing it. Grayson and Walt trace this shift back to the early days NVIDIA’s automotive division and the evolution of its Hyperion platform, which is now positioned not only to power OEMs but also to compete directl...

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss GM’s return to autonomy and the company’s long-term strategy for personally owned autonomous vehicles.

As GM once again re-enters the autonomous vehicle market, the company is signaling a new chapter, one centered on developing a hands-free, eyes-free driving system under the leadership of Chief Product Officer Sterling Anderson, beginning with the 2028 Cadillac Escalade IQ.

GM’s evolution from Super Cruise to a fully realized personal autonomy platform represents more than a technological shift; it marks a strate...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s Q3 earnings call, NVIDIA’s strategic partnership with Uber, and GM’s surprising return to autonomy under Sterling Anderson’s leadership.

The conversation opens with Walt’s firsthand insights from Tesla’s Q3 2025 earnings call, where the company confirmed plans to remove safety attendants across “large parts” of Austin by year-end after accumulating 250,000 robotaxi miles.

Tesla also announced 8–10 additional markets coming online by year-end, including Florida, Arizona, and Nevada, following the company’s phased rollout playbook: safety-attended operations first, followed by fully autonomous service...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s continued FSD 14 updates, Waymo’s expansion to London and the growing political and infrastructure challenges shaping the next phase of robotaxi growth.

Walt shares his latest hands-on experience with FSD 14, including testing the new “Mad Max” mode, featuring more assertive lane changes, higher driving speeds, and improved autonomous parking. As Tesla refines FSD 14 in preparation for a wider release, Waymo continues to expand globally.

This week, Waymo announced plans to launch in London in 2026, marking its second international market and the first where it will co...

David Doria, Director of Engineering – Automated Driving, Magna joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Magna’s approach to developing autonomous driving systems.

As the automotive industry transitions toward software-defined vehicles that will eventually become fully autonomous, the core technologies driving this transformation are being built today.

On the road to autonomy, the evolution from Level 2 ADAS to more advanced autonomous systems is redefining not only how cars drive but also how they are designed, validated, and trusted. David underscores that autonomy will not arrive overnight and that it will scale through innova...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s FSD 14 release and Waymo’s potential market expansions. 

The episode begins with Walt sharing his firsthand experience testing FSD 14, showcasing its breakthrough ability to autonomously back out of driveways and park at destinations with a single tap. While impressive, he notes challenges remain with driveway precision and occasional cautious, jerky driving behavior that sets this version apart from previous releases.

As Tesla rolls out FSD 14, NHTSA has launched a preliminary investigation into FSD. Meanwhile, Waymo is looking to potentially expand to Minnesota, after the co...

Varun Jain, Of Counsel, K&L Gates joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss why the next 15 months will define autonomous vehicle policy in America. 

With new leadership at NHTSA and growing interest in Congress, Varun outlines why the next 15 months will be pivotal for establishing a national autonomous vehicle framework. From updating outdated FMVSS standards to expanding autonomous vehicle testing authority, and with proposed legislation such as the Self-Drive Act, America Drives Act, and Autonomous Vehicle Acceleration Act, a comprehensive federal framework may finally be within reach.

Throughout the conversation, Varun...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the accelerating global expansion of robotaxis. In London, Wayve is proving its adaptable, AI-powered autonomous system can navigate complex roadways, from double roundabouts to unpredictable pedestrian interactions without reliance on LiDAR.

Wayve’s strategy of working hand-in-hand with OEMs sets it apart from Tesla’s vision-only approach, allowing flexibility depending on manufacturer demands. At the same time, institutional investors are beginning to pay more attention to the autonomous vehicles, particularly focusing not just on the technology, but on broader ecosystem of energy, fleet management, and vehicle depreciatio...

Martyn Briggs, Director, Thematic Investing Strategy, Bank of America joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss why 2035 might be the year the car peaks and what that means for the market. 

Breakthroughs in AI, falling sensor costs, and favorable regulation have shifted autonomy from a “moonshot” to a fast-emerging industry and soon, a global economy that we call the autonomy economy. During the conversation Grayson and Martyn explore Bank of America’s forecast of a $1.2 trillion total addressable market for autonomous vehicles by 2040, spanning not only passenger cars but also logistics, ports, mining, and agricult...

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the upcoming release of Tesla FSD 14, Waymo’s potential expansion to London and Nuro taking delivery of their first Lucid-built robotaxi.

What will the highly anticipated release of FSD 14 (Supervised) mean for the market? Could reduced driver monitoring signal that Tesla is inching closer to FSD Unsupervised? One thing is clear no matter what, Tesla’s vertical integration and production scale position it to deploy robotaxis faster than anyone, including Waymo, which remains dependent on its manufacturing partners. 

Later the conversation then turns to Waymo’s Lon...

Chuck Price, President, AI Kinetics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Bot Auto’s successful 40-mile, fully autonomous run with no human in the cab or operating the vehicle remotely.

In what Chuck Price calls a “watershed event,” Bot Auto successfully completed a driver-out run in under two years with less than $45 million in funding, compared to other competitors which are currently spending $600 million+ a year.

Bot Auto’s accomplishment could have broad implications for the autonomous trucking industry in terms of technological roadmaps and commercialization strategies. How they achieved this milestone w...

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-exclusive deal, where a shared fleet will operate across both Lyft and Waymo networks, with Lyft leveraging its Flexdrive subsidiary for fleet management. This deal, marks Waymo’s second partnership with Lyft, correcting widespread media reports that overlooked a small 2019 Phoenix pilot program that quietly disappeared from public...

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 new SDS (self-driving system for automotive). Qasar and Peter share how first-principles thinking, diversification across verticals, and a relentless focus on engineering have allowed the company to expand while continually de-risking the business.

As OEMs weigh the long-running build-v...

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 everything from “car wash mode” to trip planning and operating the traditional in-cabin functions of a vehicle. 

They draw parallels to historical tech battles, from Apple CarPlay’s removal by GM to the politics within Alphabet that m...

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 of 103.7 million barrels per day in 2025 and 104.9 million barrels per day in 2026, Texas has emerged as the undisputed energy powerhouse, now producing 42% of US oil and 30% of US natural gas while generating $27.3 billion in state tax revenue and supporting over 1.3 million jobs.

The Permian Basin c...

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 to operate at the San Jose (SJC) airport, a move Grayson Brulte predicted five months ago on a previous episode.

Meanwhile, Tesla opened the public waitlist for its Robotaxi app, which quickly surged up the Apple App Store...

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 “right solution,” noting that all of Uber’s current partners use this combination. This statement prompted a response from Elon Musk, who argued via a post on X that LiDAR and radar actually reduce safety due to “sensor contention” and reaffirmed Tesla’s...

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 platform and the cornerstone of Qualcomm’s autonomy strategy.

As part of this approach, Qualcomm is redefining the digital cockpit by integrating AI-powered natural language interactions, advanced graphics through Adreno GPUs, and vision-based systems that enhance both safety and user...

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 5 Atlanta even publishing a guide on how to improve your chances of getting a Waymo ride. 

The Atlanta launch has raised questions about the long-term future of Uber and Waymo’s partnership. While Waymo and Uber are facing vehicle sup...

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 owned autonomous vehicles. 

Despite the shift in strategy, GM faces significant hurdles. The company must rebuild trust with the tech community to attract top talent after Cruise’s high-profile failures. At the same time, the company continu...

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 developing personally-owned autonomous vehicles instead of robotaxis. 

This is GM’s third attempt at autonomy, raising questions about whether the company can regain the trust of engineers and the broader industry after repeatedly abandoning past efforts. Whil...

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 are on the horizon. 

At the same time, Uber pointed to “recycling” past investments, raising the question: why recycle when the company’s growing free cash flow can support both increased buybacks and significant investments in the autonomy ecosystem? Is this simpl...

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 on the Uber network over the next six years, with the potential for significantly greater scale as the partnership matures.

This isn’t just another robotaxi announcement, this could be the blueprint for the futur...

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 once again joining the autonomous vehicle industry as a service provider, could Hertz and Enterprise be next to jump back in to the industry? 

As Waymo continues to expand to new markets, Tesla ha recently launched a ride-hailing s...

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 costing $2.7 billion annually. Bedrock is looking to solve that problem as they are building autonomous construction equipment using machine learning techniques such as imitation learning and reinforcement learning to teach machines how to dig, move, and adapt in rea...

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, Arizona and the Bay Area as soon as this weekend. Two key factors behind Tesla’s ability to scale quickly are its expansive Supercharger network and its streamlined sensor suite, which is much simpler than those used by Wa...

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 shortages in agriculture. Despite this progress, regulatory hurdles remain a significant barrier to scaling these technologies in California. 

A 47-year-old CAL/OSHA regulation technically prohibits the use of autonomous tractors on private farmland, a law origi...

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 and OEM partnership strategy stood out as key strengths and later this year, the company will launch commercial service on the Uber network in Dallas.

Scaling robotaxi services requires real-world logistics, and companies s...

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 contract manufacturers for autonomous driving developers. 

With legacy OEMs acting as contract manufacturers, a new ecosystem would emerge in which OEMs build the vehicles, finance com...

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 performed at a high-level and even out performed Waymo in several instances when we tested both autonomous driving systems side by side in a variety of real-world scenarios.

Over dozens of fully autonomous rides...

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 essential to U.S. energy independence. Despite geopolitical uncertainties and high interest rates in the United States, oil markets have proven remarkably resilient.

Natural gas is quickly becoming the engine fueling the growth of AI data...

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 from operating a capital-intensive robotaxi business and instead focusing on licensing the Waymo Driver? If this is indeed a signal, what impact will this have on the rideshare industry?

As Waymo busi...

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 technological shifts. Whether it’s building autonomous trucking stacks, enabling collaborative autonomy, or creating seamless digital passports for drivers and passengers, Applied Intuition is positioning itself to become the de facto platform for vehicle intelligence.

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