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PODCAST

Autonomy Markets

Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk

Welcome to Autonomy Markets, the premier podcast that explores the world of autonomous vehicles, self-driving cars, and EV technology, and their impact on the financial markets. Each episode dives into the future of mobility innovation, examining how autonomous driving and AI in transportation are transforming investment strategies, stock market trends, and economic forecasts. Join experts Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk as they discuss the latest advancements in autonomous technology and how

technology

All Episodes

00:52:11

We Found Atoms, Rode Wayve and Watched Uber’s...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/10/03

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Grayson’s San Francisco Field Work where he rode in a Wayve vehicle on the freeway, compared Waymo’s Jaguar I-PACE and Ojai robotaxis back to back, attended DoorDash’s Dash Forward event, and found Travis Kalanick’s Atoms autonomous vehicle on the streets of San Francisco.Grayson’s verdict on Wayve is clear. With zero interventions in dense San Francisco traffic, the ride felt very similar to Tesla’s Robotaxi. Grayson believes

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00:52:54

The Robotaxi Reality Check You Won't Get From an...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/09/26

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss their Texas Field Work where they rode in Cybercab, Waymo, Avride, May Mobility robotaxis, Kodiak and Aurora autonomous trucks, and inspected depots across Austin and Dallas.Grayson’s verdict on Tesla’s Cybercab is simple. Once you go Cybercab, you don’t go back. In Austin, wait times averaged two to five minutes across dozens of rides, and from a software perspective Grayson found no material difference between Cybercab and the

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00:37:39

Waymo Takes the World While Tesla Takes the NHTSA Test

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/09/19

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s expansion to Tokyo and Singapore, NHTSA’s ongoing audit of Tesla’s Cybercab in Austin and Bolt’s plan to deploy up to 25,000 Lucid robotaxis in Europe.Today, Tesla has roughly 40 Cybercabs operating in Austin, and Grayson believes Tesla is respectfully holding at its home market while NHTSA completes a fact-finding audit. If Tesla passes, it is free to deploy in any state that permits fully autonomous operations. Walt

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01:37:24

Jason Calacanis on the Robotaxi Endgame

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/09/12

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk are joined by special guest Jason Calacanis, one of the first investors in Uber, to debate his bull case on Uber, who wins the robotaxi endgame and whether local governments will cap the deployment of autonomous vehicles.Jason earns the first clappy hat of the episode for saying what few in the market will, Tesla is obsessed with safety. The incidents Waymo has absorbed would be showstoppers under Tesla, and Tesla knows it. Jason, who

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01:09:22

Cybercab Day Arrives as Robotaxis Become Bankable

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/09/05

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla’s Cybercab commercial launch in Austin, Uber’s continued regulatory capture campaign and Waymo’s first ever debt raise.Tesla officially opened Cybercab to the public in Austin on September 3rd, with paid rides across the full operational design domain (ODD) in a vehicle with no steering wheel and no pedals. Grayson and Walt call it a major milestone for the Autonomy Economy, despite a coordinated effort to make the launch

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01:00:57

Cybercab Is Coming, Waymo Isn’t Impressed

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/08/30

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Grayson’s field work across the Bay Area, Tesla’s September 3rd Cybercab launch and Nevada’s authorization of 8,000 autonomous vehicles in Clark County.Fresh off a week of field work in California, Grayson shares firsthand impressions from his first rides in Waymo’s Zeekr-built Ojai, including a visit to Waymo’s Toland depot in San Francisco. While the Ojai rides lighter and less luxurious than the Jaguar I-PACE, its elevated

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00:42:47

Supervised Robotaxis Are Having a Moment....

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/08/22

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s California regulatory moat, Cybercab’s pending commercial launch and Uber’s string of supervised launches in Europe and Dubai.In California, Waymo is completing 1.4 million fully autonomous rides per month, a 10X growth rate over two years. Additionally, the CPUC (California Public Utilities Commission) granted Waymo commercial driverless expansion authority across 40,000 square miles, covering roughly 25 million

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00:48:37

Waymo's Expansion Exposes Uber's Robotaxi Risk and...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/08/15

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Zoox Las Vegas pricing, Waymo’s post-Uber divorce Phoenix expansion and WeRide saying the quiet part out loud, regulatory permits can create moats.Zoox launched paid rides in Las Vegas with a $12 base fare, $1.50 per mile, and 40 cents per minute, premium pricing paired with 15 to 30 minute wait times and select destinations. Walt calls it a Disney ride, not a premium product, and once Waymo and Tesla enter the market, that

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00:48:18

Can Uber's Robotaxis Scale?

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/08/08

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Uber’s Waymo hangover, Zoox launching paid rides in Las Vegas, the Teamsters suing California over driverless trucking, and NVIDIA’s Alpamayo 2 open model.Uber is nursing a Waymo hangover. Revenue came in light on take rate, management finally owned the $10 billion autonomy spending number first reported by The Financial Times, and the stock sold back into the sixties as the autonomy overhang weighs on the story.After 12 years,

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00:42:11

Is ADAS the Trojan Horse Into Autonomy?

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/08/01

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the Waymo/Uber divorce going public, Zoox receiving NHTSA approval to charge for rides, Aurora earnings, and Qualcomm's BMW win as ADAS becomes the Trojan horse into autonomy.The Waymo/Uber relationship is unraveling in public, with The Financial Times confirming Waymo will launch its own app in Austin and Atlanta in January 2028 before the contract expires that May. Both sides are airing grievances, from dirty cars and bad

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00:38:28

Tesla’s Robotaxi Ramp Comes Down to One Number

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/07/25

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla's Cybercab validation timeline, Tesla Semi FSD Supervised, Alphabet's quiet quarter on Waymo, and the Mobileye CEO stepping down after 27 years.Tesla disclosed 380,000 unsupervised miles, but those miles were logged on Model Y and do not transfer to Cybercab. The new chassis has to earn its own validation miles before commercial service begins, and Tesla is pacing production to that validation rather than building

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00:29:17

Has Robotaxi Begun to Scale?

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/07/18

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla increasing their robotaxi inventory in Texas, a controversial autonomous vehicle bill in Washington DC, Uber's acquisition of Delivery Hero, and WeRide's global expansion strategies.Data from the Texas DMV shows that Tesla has 175 robotaxis registered in Texas, a quadrupling in just six weeks from 42 on June 1st. This is a trend that is not isolated to Texas, as Grayson has noted in his Robotaxi Miami Field Report

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00:37:02

Three Robotaxis in Miami, Four New Waymo Markets, One...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/07/11

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Tesla's unsupervised robotaxi launch in Miami, Waymo preparing to bring four new markets online, and NHTSA Administrator Morrison's letter to autonomous vehicle operators.On July 3rd, Tesla launched unsupervised robotaxi in Miami, their first market outside of Texas and California. We were there on the ground conducting field research with no safety monitor and no chase vehicle in sight, riding through torrential

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00:34:43

Waymo and Uber Divorce in Phoenix. Are Austin and...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/07/04

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss the end of Waymo and Uber's partnership in Phoenix, Tesla's Cybercab hitting the streets of Austin branded for America 250 and Waymo's "Because they're everything" World Cup campaign.As Tesla gets closer and closer to putting the Cybercab into service, the U.S. Government is inching toward a national framework that would allow vehicles with no steering wheel and no pedals to deploy across all 50 states

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00:44:49

Qualcomm Sells the Chip While Mobileye Eyes the Fleet

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/06/27

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Qualcomm and Mobileye's differing robotaxi strategies, NHTSA removing the physical brake requirement for autonomous vehicles and the New York State Legislature failing to advance an autonomous driving bill.As Congress moves on the Build America 250 Act to legalize autonomous trucking and advances a national framework for autonomous vehicles, Grayson and Walt note that federal action could preempt the hostile policies

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00:29:42

Robotaxis Get the Hype, Autonomous Trucks May Get the...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/06/13

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss autonomous trucking reaching an inflection point, Waymo acquiring Apple’s Arizona proving ground and Tesla filing for a robotaxi permit in Las Vegas.As Gatik expands its middle-mile freight operations with PepsiCo across Texas, Arizona and Arkansas, Volvo Autonomous Solutions told investors it is targeting $3 billion in autonomous transport revenue within five years through its transport-as-a-service (TaaS) business.On the

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00:31:07

WeRide Is Catching Up to Waymo Globally

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/06/06

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss WeRide trying to catch up to Waymo globally, Waymo preparing to deploy Chinese-made robotaxis in Texas and the CEO of FedEx Freight's open embracement of autonomous trucking.As WeRide and Uber continue to expand throughout Europe and the Middle East together, Waymo continues to work towards deploying the Chinese-made Zeekr robotaxis now called the Ojai, with data suggesting they are now in Texas, in a politically risky

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00:40:56

Is Waymo's Lead Becoming Insurmountable?

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/05/30

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's widening lead, the Ojai (Chinese-made Zeekr robotaxi) rollout's political fault lines, and the new Texas autonomous vehicle and truck database.Waymo is actively preparing to deploy a fleet of Chinese-made Zeekrs across California and Arizona, now renamed Ojai, in blue and purple states, not a red state, at least not yet. Sticking to his original call that the Zeekr is an unforced error, Grayson lays out the

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00:35:51

Waymo's Lead and Autonomous Trucking's Inflection Point

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/05/23

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

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00:33:01

Forget the Waymo/Uber News, Focus on the Nuro and...

Autonomy Markets ·

2026/05/16

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's newly announced expansion ahead of the World Cup, the suddenly accelerating deterioration of the Uber/Waymo relationship, and the partnerships that actually matter for Uber's autonomous future.As Waymo expanded their U.S. service area by 1,400 square miles across 11 cities, Uber continued to amplify both their direct and indirect attacks against Waymo in the media and in a self-published report about deploying

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108 results

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