The Road to Autonomy

Zander Cook, Co-Founder & Chief Operating Officer, Lease End joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how consumers can capture equity at the end of their car lease. The conversation begins with Zander sharing his insights into what he is currently seeing in the leasing market. Putting this into context, the average price of a new vehicle has risen more than $10,000 since the start of the pandemic to $47,920 in January 2023, creating the opportunity for more leases. To this point it has been a little counterintuitive, actually leasing had its worst year as a percentage of new vehicle sales in decades last year. – Zander CookOne of the factors that drove the decrease in new lease originations was the rising interest rate environment. Even with excess cash from the covid stimulus, new lease originations stumbled while the market for flipping electric vehicles such as at the Tesla Model 3, Model Y and the Ford Mach-E only grew. Now that the covid stimulus has dissipated, the market for new lease originations is beginning to show signs of rebounding. With a shortage of new vehicles due to the semiconductor shortage and historically high used car prices, consumers had equity in their leased vehicles when the leases matured. This scenario is not common and was driven partly by geopolitics and a vulnerable supply chain. Lessees of Honda vehicles historically tend to have the highest average equity as the vehicles hold their equity. Could this change as more electric vehicles come online and consumers choose to lease EVs? If it does change, how will the battery be valued?For those individuals lucky enough to have equity in their vehicle at the end of a lease, their options to tap into the equity are traditionally limited. This is where Lease End comes into the picture. Lease End was built to streamline the buyout process at the end of a lease. Our entire business is streamlining the lease buyout process. – Zander CookBy streamlining the process, Lease End is saving consumers time and money. In as quick as 25 minutes, consumers can be on their way as Lease End handles all of the logistics and financing. Could this become the future of ending a lease? Perhaps, but consumers will have to learn more about their options to end a lease. In my opinion the biggest thing there is going control back to the consumer. Right now most consumers think they do not have any other option besides going into a dealership and dealing with the dealership and doing what the dealership tells them to do. That’s not the case, that’s why Lease End was founded. – Zander CookWrapping up the conversation, Zander shares his vision for the future of leasing. Recorded on Thursday, February 23, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Akshay Jaising, VP of Commercialization, Motional joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss Motional’s commercialization strategy and how Motional is scaling robotaxi operations in multiple cities.The conversation begins with Akshay discussing Motional’s commercialization strategy. We have taken a very partner centric approach. We want to focus on what we do best, which is building the autonomy stack and then partners with players in the ecosystem to make robotaxis a reality. – Akshay JaisingSince 2022, Motional has had a partnership with Uber. Beginning with autonomous Uber Eats deliveries in Santa Monica, CA, the partnership has since evolved into a 10-year multi-market deal where consumers will be able to order a ride in one of Motional’s all-electric IONIQ 5 robotaxis. This will be the largest deployment of autonomous vehicles on a ride-haling platform. Las Vegas will be the launch city followed by Los Angeles. With the expansion into Los Angeles, Motional will be operating in the 2nd largest city in the United States. Los Angeles is a diverse region that has an interest in alternative transportation modes. Anything to reduce the amount of time sitting in stop and go traffic while having to pay attention becomes a win for the millions of individuals who call Los Angeles home. We feel it’s a pretty critical market that has shown customer acceptance for ride-hailing. Our initial pilots and tests in Los Angeles with Uber Eats have been extremely promising and well received. It’s a really strong proving ground to demonstrate how this technology could scale and solve very critical transportation challenges. – Akshay JaisingAs Motional and the autonomous vehicle industry as a whole begins to scale and commercialize, attention is starting to turn from the technology to the economics of the business. Do the unit economics make sense and can the business operate profitability? These are big questions that will have to be answered. In order to answer these questions, AV companies will need long-term patient capital and this exactly what Motional has with Aptiv and Hyundai. In addition to Motional’s access to long-term patient capital, the company through the Aptiv/Hyundai joint-venture is currently having robotaxis built to automotive grade standards on the line. A factory-built autonomous vehicle is scalable. With over 130,000 autonomous vehicle rides completed to date, Motional is preparing to further scale in Las Vegas and fully commercialize the service. One of the main advantages to scaling in Las Vegas is that individuals arrive in Vegas and stay on average for 72 hours. When they are there, they gamble and enjoy all of the experiences that Vegas has to offer. They come flush with cash and open mind to trying to new experiences.Creating the perfect opportunity to scale a profitable autonomous vehicle company as riding in an AV for the first time is an experience. Adding to the experience element, by the end of the year, Motional is planning to operate fully driverless in Las Vegas. Queue up the TikTok and Instagram posts. Another defining moment will be Super Bowl 58 which will be taking place in Las Vegas. With 325,000 visitors expected to attend the Vegas Super Bowl, Motional is actively preparing driverless operations which will be operating during Super Bowl Week.We do expect to have driverless vehicles on the road in February 2024 when Super Bowl 58 will be there, and we are excited about that. – Akshay JaisingAs Motional scales operations in multiple cities including Las Vegas and Los Angeles, Motional will be taking a hybrid approach when it comes to drop-off and pick-up zones. The company will utilize zones when they are available and at times they are not, the robotaxis will integrate into the normal traffic patterns. Wrapping up the conversation, Akshay discusses how Motional will roll-out service in each market from an economic standpoint.Recorded on Tuesday, February 21, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don Burnette, Founder & CEO, Kodiak Robotics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss building an autonomous trucking business and why Kodiak did not SPAC.The conversation begins with Don discussing the last 18 months in autonomous trucking and why Kodiak did not SPAC. We had multiple SPAC offers, but at the end of the day we felt like we just didn’t have the metrics, what didn’t have what it took to be a public company. – Don BurnetteDon, and the team at Kodiak understood the difference between being a private company and a public company. Don along with the team and the board, made the decision to stay private as they felt it would put Kodiak in the best position for growth, benefiting investors, employees and the entire company.What you are seeing not just in the AV market, but beyond the AV market. You are are seeing a lot of blowback from companies that do not have any of the metrics that public investors want to see and while I think there was some hype and excitement early on in the SPAC craze cycle if you will call it, that excitement, that hype, that fervor has essentially evaporated and know companies are left with their fundamentals and unfortunately those fundamentals are not really strong. – Don BurnetteToday there are 250 registered autonomous trucks available for deployment, while there are currently 4 million Class 8 trucks in operation. With less than a 1% market share, the time for an autonomous trucking company to go public is not there as the technology currently does not have the marketshare and/or the profitability to succeed as a public company when compared to the traditional trucking industry. Don recognized this fact and resisted the temptation of taking Kodiak public via SPAC.I definitely think that Kodiak’s decision to stay private was the right one in the end. – Don BurnetteIn order to stay a private company in a challenging economic environment, you have to have financial discipline. Along with the financial discipline, you have to have the right team that works hard and does not get distracted. At Kodiak we have been focused on over-the-road long-haul trucking, autonomy and that was our mission statement on day one and that’s still our mission for the company almost five years in. That focus and not allowing ourselves to get distracted has been a big component of our success. – Don BurnetteAs part of this discipline, Kodiak has never done a free run. All of the freight that the company has hauled since day one has been paid. On day one, Don made the decision to run Kodiak as a business, not a science project. This decision has been rewarded in terms of partnerships and the revenue that Kodiak is generating from hauling freight.With all of the pieces in place, Kodiak is beginning to scale their business and preparing for driverless operations. To achieve driverless operations, Kodiak has developed a redundant safety critical system that ensures the safe operation of the truck.Driverless operations will first be rolled out in the southern part of the United States partly due to the weather and the updated infrastructure. In addition to scaling autonomous trucking across the United States, Kodiak is working with the Department of Defense to develop autonomous technology that can save lives. Wrapping up the conversation, Don discusses the future of the autonomous trucking industry. Recorded on Thursday, February 16, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Christian Spano, Director of Innovation, International Council of Mining and Metals joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy Podcast to discuss decarbonizing mining and how the circular economy can be ushered in through building stocks of materials that can be reused forever.The conversation begins with Christian discussing what is being done to decarbonize mining transportation operations as there are roughly 28,000 large mine hauling trucks in operation collectively emitting 68 million tons of Co2 a year. Health and safety at global mining operations was one of the early factors that started the conversation around the decarbonization of mining. From trucks equipped with ADAS to autonomous trucks, the aspect of how new technologies can improve the health and safety of mining operations is paramount to global mining organizations. From 30 to 50 to 80 percent of the emissions of a mine come from haul trucks. – Christian SpanoICMM members are collectively working together to usher in the future of mining; a future that is sustainable and safe. To usher in this future, the infrastructure will have to be upgraded to accommodate hydrogen and electric vehicles. The contribution of a mine turning net-zero starting with the mobile equipment, it’s a contribution to the country that is trying to decarbonize, but also accelerating the availability of all these solutions at scale for many other industries. – Christian SpanoAs companies begin to decarbonize mining operations, new jobs are being created. It’s not just jobs inside of the mine that will be created, it’s jobs outside of the mine that support the operation. Jobs such as material traceability will be created, but in order for traceability there has to be a global standard. The demand for a global standard and material traceability will end up being driven by the consumer who demands transparency into the battery that powers their vehicle. The demand for EVs is not slowing down as in 2022, global EV sales surpassed 10% for the first time. From a minerals and metals perspective, it is estimated that there could be a 20-fold increase in demand for nickel and cobalt by 2040. To meet this demand, we have to usher in the circular economy. Recycling is not the circular economy. The circular economy is about building stocks that we can reuse forever. It’s about building stocks of materials that are durable. – Christian SpanoThe circular economy is a design opportunity. It’s an opportunity to redesign and rethink how we as a society approach metals and materials. With this approach, we have to keep all options on the table and approach the future of sustainability with an open mind. Autonomous vehicles will play a role in the future of sustainability as autonomous trucks deployed in mines around the world will be cleaner and safer. ICMM members are actively embracing autonomy and deploying at their mine sites around the world. Wrapping up the conversation, Christin discusses the future of decarbonizing mining operations. Recorded on Friday, February 3, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Oliver Cameron, VP, Product, Cruise joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy Podcast to discuss scaling Cruise, the passenger experience and the role AI plays in the Cruise product. The conversation begins with Oliver reflecting on the last four years in autonomy.The biggest change for me that has happened over the last four years is that in 2019 everyone in the industry was waking up to answer the question can we make a car safer than a human, a self-driving car that is safer than a human. – Oliver CameronNow it’s 2023 and Cruise is scaling a safe autonomous vehicle service in multiple cities with no safety drivers. As Cruise scales, Cruise is listening to passengers and gathering feedback and incorporating their feedback into the product.There is just something about self-driving cars that really sparks a sense of optimism in people. – Oliver CameronIt’s a sense of optimism that brings joy and happiness. The Cruise experience is a consistent experience that only gets better over time. The Cruise virtual driver never becomes distracted, gets upset or emotional. It simply drives you to and from your destination safely each time ride in one of the vehicles, it’s a consistent experience. The human equivalent is not very consistent. You can have the world’s best driver and the world’s worst driver from trip to trip. Our experience is very consistent and it only gets better over time and that is something that is very special and unique to autonomous vehicles that the human driven equivalents will simply just never be able to match because of the inconsistency of humans. – Oliver CameronAs autonomous vehicles scale, they benefit as they gather more data that can be used to improve the product. As an example in less then 90 days, Cruise was able to launch fully driverless operations in two cities, Austin, TX and Phoenix, AZ. Oliver goes onto explain how Cruise was able to achieve this goal.If our technology was not generalizable, well frankly there is no chance of us deploying driverless in Austin in less then 90 days. – Oliver CameronAs Cruise scales, The Origin will play a critical role in operations. The Origin will be an eye-catching vehicle that makes you feel like you are living in The Jetsons when you first see it. When you first enter the vehicle you will realize how spacious it is. From a comfortable experience to one that is controlled by voice, The Origin is ushering in the future of mobility. Through their partnership with Honda, Cruise is currently testing in Japan. When it comes to expanding to new international markets, the team at Cruise is working hard to understand local customs and how individuals in those countries pay for goods and interact with digital devices on a daily basis. This technology can definitely scale a lot faster then people think. – Oliver CameronTo enable the future of autonomy we need AI breakthroughs. Oliver and Grayson go onto discuss the latest breakthroughs in AI and how Cruise is leveraging their machine learning infrastructure to improve their product. Wrapping up the conversation, Oliver shares his outlook for the future of the autonomous vehicle industry.Recorded on Friday, January 27, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jim Mullen, Founder & President, Mullen Consulting joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss how traditional trucking and autonomous trucking compliment each other and their combined benefits to the U.S. freight network.The conversation begins with Jim discussing what is causing the decline rates in spot truckload rates, which are down 57.3% year-over-year.It is clearly a supply and demand issue right now. – Jim MullenDuring the 2008 financial crisis, the S&P Transportation Select Industry Index feel from a high of $1,998.20 on February 20, 2007 to a low of $626.27 on March 9, 2009, a 68.63% decline. It took the Index four years until February 19, 2013 to regain the losses from the economic crisis. If history is to repeat itself and we enter into a potential recession, you could see further downward pressure on spot truckload rates. With new entrants in the market and deteriorating market economic conditions, the market currently remains strained.With all these new entrants who are really just trying to stay afloat, they are going to take freight they ought not be taking or at least be taking freight at rates they ought not be taking. Until you expunge the marketplace of that lack of discipline with those types of folks that are quote desperate you will continue to see that down kind of pressure. – Jim MullenTaking an holistic approach to the trucking industry as a whole, it is a very vibrant industry. It is a healthy industry that is preparing for a future with autonomous trucks. It is an industry that is working in tandem with their shippers and customers to ensure that it is a win-win when the economic conditions stabilize and return to growth.When economic conditions stabilize and there is a return to growth, autonomous trucks will be scaling in a regulatory environment that is made up of patchwork of State laws as there is currently no national framework for autonomous trucks.Additionally there is no plan for a national framework for autonomous trucks at this time. Is it even necessary? Unsure at the moment, as soon autonomous trucks will be able to operate legally from Arizona to Florida on the 1-10, when Mississippi comes online with their new autonomous trucking regulations.No matter the regulations, the industry is going to have to develop public trust in each and every State that they operate. This is something that the autonomous trucking industry takes seriously and Jim shares his thoughts from his time at FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) where he served as Acting Administrator on the importance of public trust in autonomous trucks.While trust has to be developed with the public, the traditional trucking industry is approaching autonomous trucking in a mixed fashion.There is a mixed bag. Some of the motor carriers are much more aggressive and more involved in looking at how autonomy is going to change their freight networks. But if you look at the blue-chip motor carriers, I say that they are predominantly fully engaged on how autonomy is going to change their business model and freight network. – Jim MullenTo achieve commercial Level 4 autonomy in with the autonomous trucking industry, it ill take partnerships. Torc has a partnership with Daimler and Waymo has a partnership with J.B. Hunt. Then there are the Truck OEMs that are exploring transportation as a service. Could transportation as a service be how autonomous trucks are deployed in the future? Possibly. Then there are the autonomous trucking companies who are unable to secure an OEM deal, could they potentially explore licensing deals? Possibly.The future for how autonomous trucks will roll out has yet to be written. It will be interesting to watch how it all plays out and who emerges victoriously.Wrapping up the conversation, Jim shares his thoughts on the future of the trucking industry.Recorded on Tuesday, January 24, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sergey Litvinenko, Co-Founder & CEO, Koop Insurance joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss how Koop is reimagining how you underwrite autonomous vehicle insurance. The conversation begins with Sergey describing Koop.We are an insurance technology startup that is focused on everything automated. We focus on fully autonomous vehicles that go on public roads like robotaxis, trucks and shuttles to off-road applications in robotics, in agriculture, construction, mining, warehousing, manufacturing and aerial use cases. – Sergey Litvinenko For Koop to properly insure their clients, they have developed a proprietary underwriting platform focused on autonomy, filling a void in the market. Today the market for autonomous vehicle/truck insurance is limited with little flexibility as traditional insurers do not truly understand the risk. The main bottleneck why the insurance industry is not able to innovate at the moment is because the insurance industry cannot get the data that would allow them to build the insurance product around the autonomous vehicle risk. – Sergey Litvinenko Koop gathers data such as the technical specs of the autonomy system, exposure data and performance data of the vehicles they insure. With the data Koop can properly price the insurance as they understand the risk better then their competitors. As Koop primarily operates as an underwriter they work with traditional insurance brokers. Keeping with their theme of being innovative, Koop recently introduced Broker Universe to streamline the process of quoting an insurance policy. What the brokers and Koop deliver together is a high quality insurance offering.It’s high quality insurance which is going to allow the autonomous vehicle industry to scale. Without high quality insurance, the AV industry will not be able to scale as their risk profile would be to exposed to situations that they can not control, but they can insure against. Furthermore, high quality insurance builds trust with regulators, investors and members of the public. Trust is what is allowing Cruise, Waymo and Motional to scale operations in multiple cities around the United States. While these AV companies are scaling and generating revenue, analysts are divided over their valuations with one analyst evening assigning a zero value to Cruise. In my view, in the next ten years, Cruise itself could be worth more then the rest of GM combined. It’s a great move for GM to have Cruise because it could drive more than 50% of the revenue of the company in the near future. – Sergey Litvinenko In a September 2022 Bloomberg Intelligence report, an analyst mentioned that Waymo may be able to generate about $5 billion in revenue by 2025. To achieve this number, Waymo might have to license their technology. If they do indeed license their technology, what is the impact on insurance? Sergey goes onto explain how it would work and who is responsible when a crash occurs. Wrapping up the conversation, Sergey and Grayson discuss the economics of autonomy. Recorded on Thursday, January 19, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dean Foreman, Chief Economist, American Petroleum Institute (API) joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss his 2023 Q1 outlook for the oil and gas markets.The conversation begins with Dean sharing his thoughts and insights into the current state of the oil and gas markets. As the economy goes, that is what we are going to look for in oil and gas markets. – Dean ForemanThe demand for oil has been strong. The U.S. Petroleum demand in December 2022 was 20.5 million barrels per day. For 2022, oil demand grew by 2.2%. Going back to 2000, 2022 was the forth highest year for growth. It says that on the heels of the pandemic, $20 trillion dollars worth of economic stimulus has continued to have a pretty positive effect for the economy, despite Fed Funds rate hikes, despite concerns about a recession, despite individual sectors that have been under pressure. – Dean ForemanThe trend of demand outpacing supply has continued for over a year now with inventories that are at historic lows. Oil demand is growing because of the rebound in travel and the increase in cargo shipping by air. During the last six months in 2022, 1.5 million barrels per day (1.5% of the global market) of new oil globally came online from Government reserves. While there was some downward price movement, there was also long-term negative consequences as oil companies were discouraged to start new drilling and new infrastructure projects. This could lead to a global imbalance as there will not be enough infrastructure to meet demand. The official estimates for demand growth this year range between basically 1 million barrels per day or about 1% of the market, up to 1.7 million barrels per day. – Dean ForemanIn order to meet this demand, investment has to be made and drilling has to expand around the world to ensure that new supply can come to the market. Adding more context to this, the U.S. Energy Information Administration is predicting that global oil demand is expected to reach a record-high of 101 million barrels per day in 2023. The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve ended 2022 at the lowest point since 1983. When comparing 2022 to 1983, the U.S.’s oil consumption was more than 33% higher. There is little margin for error with solid oil demand and a dwindling Strategic Petroleum Reserve. When you factor in geo-politics and weather, the situation becomes even more unpredictable.In 2022, the U.S. dollar rose 6.23%. So far this year (2023) the U.S. dollar has begun to weaken. With a weakening U.S. dollar that is projected to weaken by 3% this year according to Bloomberg, oil is beginning to trade on local currencies. For Q1 2023, the trends to watch in the oil and gas markets are the Russia/Ukraine conflict, systemic risks to the global food supply and emerging markets debt.Wrapping up the conversation, Dean discuses the global economics and the impact it has on household budgets. Recorded on Tuesday, January 17, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

David Welch, Detroit Bureau Chief, Bloomberg and Author of Charging Ahead, General Motors, Mary Bara, and the Reinvention of an American Icon joined Grayson Brulte on The Road To Autonomy Podcast to discuss his 2023 outlook on the autonomous vehicle market. The conversation begins with David sharing his outlook for the autonomous vehicle market in 2023. David shares his thoughts on the market and insights into how investors are currently valuing autonomous vehicle companies.As the conversation evolves, Grayson asks David if it is time for Aurora to split the business in two and focus solely on autonomous trucking. I think there is so much of a focus on their trucking side that for all practical purposes it’s one company. I do not know that they need to split it, because I do not know if there is enough activity going on on the other side to make a difference. – David WelchIf Cruise and Waymo build a large enough of a lead in robotaxi deployments, there is the possibility that Aurora becomes a technology company for the trucking industry. If Aurora’s stock continues to decline, while at the sametime their technology continues to improve, a traditional trucking company could make a move and acquire Aurora. With all the moves being made in the autonomous vehicle industry, Microsoft is steadily making strategic investments that will help drive the growth of the company’s Azure cloud platform. Over the last 18 months, Microsoft has invested in Cruise, Gatik and Spartan Radar. Microsoft, this is not a venture cap fund, they have to see something before they put money in it. It’s a good sign for anyone who gets funded by them.– David WelchMicrosoft has an advantage when it comes to other cloud providers as the company does not have an in-house autonomous vehicle program. Amazon has a program with Zoox and Alphabet has a program with Waymo. For awhile, Zoox was at the forefront of every autonomous vehicle conversation, and then slowly overtime the company has quietly disappeared from the AV dialogue. What are Amazon’s plans for Zoox? Grayson and David discuss what Amazon’s plans for Zoox could be. Could Zoox’s autonomous technology be integrated into Amazon’s Rivian delivery vans? It’s a possibility as Amazon is major investor in Rivian. Another major question in the market is what happens to Lyft? Who steps in and buys the company? It’s not a profitable business. It’s way too expensive for what it is right now for anyone to buy it. – David WelchOr could an airline possibly step in and buy Lyft and integrate the company into their passenger operations? If they were to do this, the airline would need an autonomous vehicle strategy. Taking a broader look at the AV industry, David and Grayson discuss Motional and the company’s strategy to scale. Does Motional have enough capital to scale and compete against Cruise and Waymo?Then there is the second tier of autonomous vehicle companies led by May Mobility. May’s strategy to operate in rural suburban areas that lack public transit is winning over politicians, riders and investors as the company scales in these areas. I think it’s a very interesting company. – David WelchTesla is also an interesting company. Looking to the future does Tesla open the Dojo platform and does the company create a true SUV? Grayson and David discuss the possibilities. Wrapping up the conversation, David shares his thoughts on what he sees happening in the autonomous vehicle market over the next 12 months. Recorded on Tuesday, January 10, 2023--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Matt Soule, Co-Founder & CEO, Parallel Systems joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy Podcast to discuss Parallel’s electric, autonomous freight rail system. The conversation begins with Matt discussing the founding of Parallel Systems.The energy efficiency of rail uniquely allows for reduction in energy and therefore reduction in CO2. – Matt SouleParallel Systems is working to re-imagine how freight moves on rail by going smaller and simpler with autonomous battery rail cars. The system is flexible and it works with legacy rail operators, which allows those operators further optimize their capacity.Parallel is developing a system that allows rail to expand their addressable market. – Matt SouleTo help rail become more competitive with trucks, Parallel’s system allows truck unit economics without the massive scale. Our economics do not require amortization over large amounts of freight. – Matt SouleThe system operates autonomously on rail routes that compete with drayage operations a platoon. The autonomous rail platoon will max out around 50 cars as it’s the most efficient means of moving freight on the Parallel system. Unlike traditional trains that can block road roadways for extended periods of time, Parallel’s contact-based platooning system allows for the cars to disconnect and reconnect as to not slow traffic for an extended period of time.When Parallel starts the process of commercializing their technology, the company wants to be a vendor to rail operators. They are not going to act as a service provider and compete with the traditional rail industry. During the dwell time when cars are loaded and unloaded, Parallel’s cars will be able to charge. To charge, the system will require 3 to 10 megawatts of charging capacity. Parallel cars will get around 500 range of mile with a 250 kilowatt battery. One of the major advantages of the Parallel system is the system’s ability to dramatically change the braking force, allowing the train to stop faster. What Parallel is doing is developing a braking system that does close the loop and we are able to dramatically change our braking force depending on the track conditions, the adhesion of the train wheel to the track, as well as how heavily we are loaded. We are trying to stop as fast as physics will allow us. – Matt SouleDynamic braking helps the system operate more safely. The Parallel approach to rail has caught the attention of the U.S. Department of Energy as Parallel was rewarded a $4.4 million grant to fund a 29-month advanced testing program with the goal of quantifying the environmental impact and the overall vehicle stability of their system. Wrapping up the conversation, Matt shares his opinion on the future of freight.Parallel is creating capacity for freight. – Matt SouleRecorded on Friday December 9, 2022--------About The Road to AutonomyThe Road to Autonomy® is a leading source of data, insight and commentary on autonomous vehicles/trucks and the emerging autonomy economy™. The company has two businesses: The Road to Autonomy Indices, with Standard and Poor’s Dow Jones Indices as the custom calculation agent; Media, which includes The Road to Autonomy and Autonomy Economy podcasts as well as This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.