This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s undisputed global lead, the growing consumer-driven shift toward supervised ADAS (Level 2++), and autonomous trucking’s inflection point. After spending the week in Silicon Valley, Walt shared his on the ground observations amidst the backdrop of Waymo’s noisy week where the company paused service in several cities and temporarily shut down highway access. Even though Waymo had a difficult week, the company’s underlying position is unchanged, as they remain the undisputed global leader. Wayve announced a supervised L2++ point-to-point deal with Stellantis, indicating a potential pivot towards ADAS as a short-term revenue generator. Grayson views the broader growth of ADAS as being consumer-driven, with global OEMs looking to build their own version of Tesla’s FSD. Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Walt discussed London gearing up for robotaxis and the global growth of Chinese robotaxis. Episode Chapters 00:00 Walt&#x27;s Silicon Valley Field Report 07:20 Why Tesla Won&#x27;t Add LiDAR 11:05 Uber&#x27;s AV Labs and the Data Question 13:13 ADAS Opportunity 18:40 Waymo&#x27;s Noisy Week 23:45 London Further Opens the Door to Robotaxis 26:23 Build America 250 Act 29:44 Wayve x Stellantis 31:34 Foreign Autonomy Desk 34:44 Next Week -------- About The Road to Autonomy The Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™. Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth. Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what&#x27;s next. 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.

Autonomy Markets: Waymo's Lead and Autonomous Trucking's Inflection Point

The Road to Autonomy

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** The Road to Autonomy

## Participants

- **Grayson Brulte** (None)
- **Walt** (None)

## Transcript

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Walt, I don't know if I like this or not. You took a page out of my playbook and you went and put on your field inspector hat and you were out there in California uncovering all sorts of great stuff. While you were out there waving out to deal with Stellantis and the foreign autonomy desk stayed hot. Let's start with Inspector Walt doing field work. What is your uncovering Silicon Valley, Walt?

Well, first and foremost, the death of San Franciscocisco is greatly exaggerated. We spent some time in downtown, obviously most of the time in the Valley. San Franciscocisco is, you know, much changed. So, congrats there. I don't know if our friends in Texas would reconsider moving back to San Francisco. You know, because there's other issues that obviously California has.

But a really positive experience. And obviously still a ton of great energy and optimism within the tech folks that are there. Unfortunately, this means a shit ton of traffic that we had to deal with. Sorry, mom.

And thank you for all the industry listeners who reached out and we were able to kind of meet for the first time. So that was that was great to meet some new people within the industry. But yeah, Grayson, I did feel like you at one point we were on whatever road that is that connects San Fran. I forget the names always in an Uber or Waymo.

So, and I saw this gigantic Waymo Depot. I posted it on Twitter, now known as X, had some Ojai's in there, the Gigli's that were there. I saw one on the highway as well. What did you think of that sighting? I was channeling your inner Clouseau on that one. I want to know where your hat was. I mean, if you're going to go to the field work and find depots, you have to have a hat. So where was the hat?

The hat was not there. That was one of the most massive and busier ones that I think I've seen. And actually, upon observation, looked like the most effective in terms. Other ones are, I don't know, weren't operating that efficiently. That one looked super efficient. I don't even know who owned it. We got to do some more work on that. We'll get back to our listeners when we have some more of those details.

We also met, obviously, with a bunch of executives across the industry. Aurora, Uber, whatever, rode in multiple cars. Nuro, WeRide, Wave, obviously Waymo. All of these were solid trips.

I'm going to prefer to withhold ultimate judgment on these. I mean, again, you and I, I think, have ridden in more of these than most people. I was joking with Brandon on the Lightship podcast. Even he now has been in a lot of these autonomous cars more than most p...

Autonomy Markets: Waymo's Lead and Autonomous Trucking's Inflection Point

Transcript

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Autonomy Markets: Waymo's Lead and Autonomous Trucking's Inflection Point

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.