The Road to Autonomy

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss CES 2026, Zoox’s performance on the Las Vegas Strip and Uber’s potential long-term autonomy plans. Zoox’s performance was one of those hopefully “only in Las Vegas” moments, as the vehicle was seen stopping in the middle of traffic and blocking entrances on a regular basis. Which raises the question; what is Amazon going to do with Zoox? Do they overhaul management, make an acquisition, or simply shut it down and move on? While Zoox struggled, NVIDIA introduced their open-source Alpamayo AI models under an Apache 2.0 license to accelerate the development of autonomous vehicles and sell more GPUs. Closing out the show, the discussion shifts to hardware and global expansion, contrasting Waymo’s bulky new Ojai vehicle with the well-designed Lucid-Nuro robotaxi.Episode Chapters0:00 CES 20262:13 Zoox CES Experience 8:41 NVIDIA’s CES Announcements 12:45 SAE Level 216:59 Waymo Ojai19:31 Lucid / Nuro Robotaxi21:29 Does Uber Need to Vertically Integrate Autonomy in the Future?25:05 Waymo / Uber Relationship27:37 Tensor Auto 32:49 Foreign Autonomy Desk34:35 Disgrace of The Week38:24 Next WeekRecorded on Friday, January 9, 2026--------About The Road to AutonomyThe 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.

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the fallout from Waymo’s crisis management failure in San Francisco, where a power outage left hundreds of vehicles stranded and blocking intersections throughout the city. Waymo’s prolonged silence on the incident and lack of transparency regarding what truly happened could lead to a decline in public trust just as robotaxis begin to scale. Down in Austin, Tesla missed their 2025 driver-out deadline in Austin, prompting Grayson to push his prediction for driver-out/safety attendant out commercial service to late February or early March 2026.Then there is Uber, a company with an ever-changing narrative around autonomy—shifting from demand-generation to hybrid networks, and now claiming mass adoption is still decades away. What will the next narrative be, and will it change once again post-CES?Closing out the show, Grayson and Walt discuss how escalating geopolitical tensions in Venezuela and potential political shifts in the UK could force a hard reset for companies relying on Chinese autonomous technology to scale their robotaxi businesses.Episode Chapters0:00 Lights Out in San Francisco2:44 Why Did Waymo’s Freeze When the Power Went Out?8:34 Remote Drivers15:00 Robotaxi in Austin18:33 Scaling Robotaxi 22:48 Autonomous Vehicle Policy24:47 Austin Incident Reports 27:17 Uber’s Ever-Changing Narrative 30:31 Miami-Dade Sheriff Deploys Autonomous Patrol Vehicles 32:38 Foreign Autonomy Desk40:26 CESRecorded on Sunday, January 4, 2026 --------About The Road to AutonomyThe 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.

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 Chapters0:00 Permian Pete3:50 Permian Basin8:02 Automation in the Permian Basin11:10 Learnings from the Permian Basin16:01 Permian Basin Operations18:49 SensorPods23:50 Kodiak's Diversified Business Model27:34 Autonomous Trucking Regulations30:15 Permian Basin Road and Traffic Conditions35:49 Permian Pete's Ride Experience41:31 Autonomy Markets OutlookRecorded on Friday, December 19, 2025--------About The Road to AutonomyThe 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.

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 Chapters0:00 Playing Chess2:35 Yard Operating Systems7:15 Yard Bottlenecks 9:33 Traditional Yard and Warehouse Operations15:15 Computer Vision 19:05 Building LLM Models24:37 Data Control Centers27:43 Automating Yards36:34 Changing Consumer Habits39:03 Autonomous Trucks and Yards40:07 Future of Terminal IndustriesRecorded on Monday, December 15, 2025--------About The Road to AutonomyThe 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.

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 Chapters0:00 Brighter with Herbert1:32 HYPRDRIVE Ride and Meeting with Tim Kentley Klay6:50 Waymo From SFO to the City with No Highway12:28 Tesla Starts Removing Safety Attendants in Austin18:03 Luminar Files for Chapter 1122:26 California’s Pending Tesla Ban25:30 Sterling Anderson’s Growing Role at GM31:24 Waymo’s Capital Raise 37:43 Kodiak’s Partnership with Verizon39:58 Next WeekRecorded on Friday, December 19, 2025--------About The Road to AutonomyThe 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.