The Road to Autonomy

Grayson Brulte
  • 4.8 (31)
  • TECHNOLOGY
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

How would you feel if the transport truck beside you on the highway had no driver? Or the car passing beside you had no driver? Would it make a difference if the widespread deployment of autonomous trucks could ease supply chain problems almost overnight and that autonomous vehicles do not get distracted or speed? And would you feel better if you knew autonomous trucks and vehicles could reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent or more. Learn more from world's leading mobility experts on The Road to Autonomy®, an ahead-of-the-curve podcast hosted by Grayson Brulte.

  1. How the Permian Basin is Accelerating Kodiak's Commercialization Plans

    5D AGO

    How the Permian Basin is Accelerating Kodiak's Commercialization Plans

    Pete Bigelow, Public Relations Manager, Kodiak joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss his firsthand experience in the Permian Basin and how the region acts as a "literal and figurative sandbox" for autonomous trucking. During the episode Grayson and Pete discuss Kodiak's operational partnership with Atlas Energy Solutions, the hardening of technology against extreme weather and road conditions, and how these industrial learnings are accelerating Kodiak’s timeline for driverless highway operations in the second half of 2026. Episode Chapters 0:00 Permian Pete 3:50 Permian Basin 8:02 Automation in the Permian Basin 11:10 Learnings from the Permian Basin 16:01 Permian Basin Operations 18:49 SensorPods 23:50 Kodiak's Diversified Business Model 27:34 Autonomous Trucking Regulations 30:15 Permian Basin Road and Traffic Conditions 35:49 Permian Pete's Ride Experience 41:31 Autonomy Markets Outlook Recorded on Friday, December 19, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    45 min
  2. Automating Logistics Yards with Computer Vision

    12/23/2025

    Automating Logistics Yards with Computer Vision

    Darin Brannan, CEO & co-founder of Terminal Industries joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss transforming the logistics yard into a fully automated environment using computer vision and agentic AI.  Unlike legacy approaches that rely on RFID tags or manual "clipboard and radio" processes, Terminal Industries utilizes a proprietary computer vision platform trained on real world data, including weather occlusions, dirt, and glare to achieve high-accuracy tracking without requiring perfect conditions.  By digitizing the yard through an agentic workflow approach, the company is moving beyond simple point solutions to building a unified operating system that connects the warehouse to transportation, effectively enabling the transition from manual oversight to autonomous execution. Episode Chapters 0:00 Playing Chess 2:35 Yard Operating Systems 7:15 Yard Bottlenecks 9:33 Traditional Yard and Warehouse Operations 15:15 Computer Vision 19:05 Building LLM Models 24:37 Data Control Centers 27:43 Automating Yards 36:34 Changing Consumer Habits 39:03 Autonomous Trucks and Yards 40:07 Future of Terminal Industries Recorded on Monday, December 15, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    41 min
  3. Autonomy Markets: Tesla’s Austin Moment, LiDAR Chapter 11 & HYPR Emerges

    12/20/2025

    Autonomy Markets: Tesla’s Austin Moment, LiDAR Chapter 11 & HYPR Emerges

    This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk, Grayson hit the road and met with Tim Kentley-Klay of HYPRLABS in San Francisco, Tesla started removing the safety attendees in Austin and Waymo is reportedly raising another round at a $110 billion valuation. Grayson shares details from his exclusive first ride in the HYPRDRIVE vehicle in San Francisco and insights from his The Road to Autonomy podcast interview with Tim Kentley Klay. They discuss HYPR’s emergence from stealth and the company’s unique vision-only, self-reinforcement learning approach to autonomy. As the vision-only modality gains market validation, the conversation shifts to Waymo. Despite generating significant momentum with a sensor suite heavily reliant on LiDAR and radar, the company is reportedly seeking to raise $15 billion in external capital at a $110 billion valuation. Grayson and Walt debate the strategic logic behind the raise and offer predictions on when Waymo will surpass one million paid rides per week. Closing out the show, they analyze the implications of a recent Bloomberg report suggesting that Sterling Anderson is being groomed to become the next CEO of GM. Episode Chapters 0:00 Brighter with Herbert 1:32 HYPRDRIVE Ride and Meeting with Tim Kentley Klay 6:50 Waymo From SFO to the City with No Highway 12:28 Tesla Starts Removing Safety Attendants in Austin 18:03 Luminar Files for Chapter 11 22:26 California’s Pending Tesla Ban 25:30 Sterling Anderson’s Growing Role at GM 31:24 Waymo’s Capital Raise  37:43 Kodiak’s Partnership with Verizon 39:58 Next Week Recorded on Friday, December 19, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    41 min
  4. Self-Driving on 33 Watts: How HYPR Labs Trained a Model for Just $850

    12/16/2025

    Self-Driving on 33 Watts: How HYPR Labs Trained a Model for Just $850

    Tim Kentley Klay, CEO & co-founder of HYPRLABS, joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how the company is achieving autonomous driving in downtown San Francisco using just 33 watts of compute and zero simulation or HD maps. By prioritizing "learning velocity," HYPR utilizes an end-to-end neural network that learns continuously from real-world driving data, avoiding the structural noise injected by classical simulation and hand-coded heuristics. While the industry often relies on massive engineering teams and brute-force compute, HYPRLABS is executing a high-efficiency strategy with a team of just four engineers and a foundational model trained for only $850. Drawing inspiration from DeepMind’s AlphaZero, the company allows the AI to model the environment without predefined rules, using their autonomous vehicle fleet as a validation platform for a new category of robots launching next year. Episode Chapters 0:00 Introduction to HYPRDRIVE 1:30 HYPRDRIVE 5:40 Learning Velocity 8:10 Building HYPR 12:23 Training the System 18:55 The Origins of the HYPR Approach 21:36 Building Trust 23:35 Simulation 27:07 $850 to Train the Model 30:44 HYPR Robots 33:22 Cameras 35:16 What's Next Recorded on Sunday, December 14, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    37 min
  5. Autonomy Markets: Rivian’s Vertical Integration Bet, Wayve’s Nissan Win & Uber’s Autonomy Narrative

    12/13/2025

    Autonomy Markets: Rivian’s Vertical Integration Bet, Wayve’s Nissan Win & Uber’s Autonomy Narrative

    This Week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Rivian’s bold vertical integration bet as the EV maker announced plans to build their own chips and lidar sensors, effectively moving away from NVIDIA. Is the introduction of “Autonomy+”, a new software subscription priced to undercut competitors a risky distraction or a necessary move as the company works toward profitability? As Rivian looks inward, Wayve signed a major win, signing a definitive agreement to scale with Nissan in North America and Japan beginning in 2027. Then there is Uber. Who does Uber want to be when autonomy grows up, and who will their partners ultimately be and what those relationships will look like in the long term? Currently, Uber’s autonomy narrative faces challenges, as the company appears to be playing defense while getting front-run by partners Waymo in the U.S. and Momenta in Abu Dhabi.  Closing out the show, Grayson and Walt discuss the growing world of international autonomy on the weekly Foreign Autonomy Desk segment, covering updates from Bolt, Stellantis, and Caterpillar. Episode Chapters 0:00 Rivian’s Autonomy Ambitions  13:11 Licensing Autonomous Driving Stacks 17:29 Wayve’s Approach to Autonomy  21:07 Tesla’s Safety Attendant Out in Austin Plans 23:35 Waymo’s Blitz Scaling  27:37 Waymo’s Growing OOH Ad Business  32:32 Uber’s Autonomy Narrative  37:57 Serve Robotics 2,000 Robot Delivery Milestone 39:30 Tensor Auto / Zero Partnership  42:13 Aurora’s Permian Basin Expansion  44:47 Foreign Autonomy Desk  52:16 Next Week  Recorded on Friday, December 12, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    53 min
  6. How Robotaxis Solve the "RideShare Lottery" Problem

    12/09/2025

    How Robotaxis Solve the "RideShare Lottery" Problem

    Ed Olson, Founder & CEO of May Mobility joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how autonomous vehicles can eliminate the "rideshare lottery", the inconsistent, variable experience of traditional rideshare by deploying fleet-managed robotaxis that offer a predictable, premium service. While the industry often focuses on vertical integration, May Mobility is executing an asset-light strategy focused on partnerships with Toyota, Uber, Lyft, and Grab to augment, rather than replace, existing networks. To help these networks scale efficiently, May Mobility is prioritizing hybrid vehicles to maximize asset utilization, effectively bypassing the downtime and infrastructure costs associated with EV charging. Episode Chapters 0:00 May Mobility Expands to Asia with Grab 1:54 May Mobility's Partner & Deployment Strategy 4:43 Weather & Culture 12:48 Service Areas & Vehicles 19:12 The Hybrid Decision 22:15 Vehicle Platforms 25:15 On-Board Compute 29:07 Deploying Robotaxis at Scale 32:23 May Mobility Playbook 38:26 Autonomy is Growing 45:22 Next Year Recorded on Tuesday, November 25, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    46 min
  7. Autonomy Markets: Waymo Upstages Uber’s Party: Avride’s Debut & The Reality of Scaling

    12/06/2025

    Autonomy Markets: Waymo Upstages Uber’s Party: Avride’s Debut & The Reality of Scaling

    This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss “Thriller in the Big D” as Waymo upstages Uber’s party in Dallas. The day before Uber was set to announce its commercial launch with Avride in Dallas, Waymo stole the spotlight by announcing they went driver-out in the same city.  During the episode Grayson and Walt analyzed the fallout from this timing, including Uber’s “marketing fail” where a safety driver was spotted in promotional footage, and debate whether Avride’s limited 9-square-mile launch is a legitimate business move or just another “science project”. Beyond the drama in Texas, they dove into the broader race to scale, questioning if adding a few hundred cars in new markets Houston, Baltimore, and St. Louis truly counts as commercial scaling. As Waymo announces new markets, Sterling Anderson is aggressively hiring at GM and the autonomous trucking market is beginning to heat up. Episode Chapters 0:00 The Thriller in Big D featuring Waymo, Avride and Uber 5:17 Autonomous Vehicle Messaging  7:01 Avride / Uber’s Dallas Service Area  10:14 No New Waymo/Uber Markets, So Far 13:50 Waymo’s Rapid Expansion  18:56 Waymo’s Six Stages of Autonomy 20:26 No Waymo Commercial Launch for Art Basel  21:49 Will Tesla Robotaxis Ever Be Available on Uber? 23:06 FSD Updates 25:00 Sterling Anderson’s Growing Role at GM 29:04 Wayve Acquires Quality Match  29:41 Foreign Autonomy Desk 30:13 Waymo’s Continuing Zeekr Issue  32:21 Autonomous Trucking 33:50 Next Week Recorded on Friday, December 5, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    35 min
  8. The Million Robot Bet: Why Enterprise Wins Before Homes

    12/02/2025

    The Million Robot Bet: Why Enterprise Wins Before Homes

    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. Powering the humanoids is the software "brain" and system integration, which are becoming the primary differentiators over commoditized hardware. As humanoids scale, the timeline for adoption is accelerating; Lerrel predicts the deployment of one million robots by 2030, driven by acute labor shortages and the economic practicality of enterprise use cases compared to the regulatory hurdles of the consumer market. 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 38:42 Chips 45:44 Deploying Humanoids in the Workplace 49:28 Future of Humanoids Recorded on Thursday, November 6, 2025 -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy provides market intelligence and strategic advisory services to institutional investors and companies, delivering insights needed to stay ahead of emerging trends in the autonomy economy™. To learn more, say hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com. Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    53 min
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out of 5
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About

How would you feel if the transport truck beside you on the highway had no driver? Or the car passing beside you had no driver? Would it make a difference if the widespread deployment of autonomous trucks could ease supply chain problems almost overnight and that autonomous vehicles do not get distracted or speed? And would you feel better if you knew autonomous trucks and vehicles could reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent or more. Learn more from world's leading mobility experts on The Road to Autonomy®, an ahead-of-the-curve podcast hosted by Grayson Brulte.

Information

  • Creator
    Grayson Brulte
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    358
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 AUTNMY AI, Inc. | All Rights Reserved
  • Show Website
    The Road to Autonomy

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