You-You Xue took early delivery of a Model 3, and rather than sit around the house for Winter break he decided to drive across the country and share his excitement for his new car. After touring the United States, giving hundreds of test drives to fellow fans and becoming an online sensation, he decided to take his Tesla Road Trip to Europe. But when his car crashed due to what he calls an Autopilot malfunction, suddenly his relationship with the driver assist system, Tesla and its fans became a lot more complicated. On this episode of the Autonocast, You-You explains what happened, how he got there, and what he hopes people learn from the situation.

Maniv Mobility is one of the top mobility-focused investment funds in the world, especially when it comes to identifying the best Israel-based mobility technology startups. On today's episode of The Autonocast, we are joined by Maniv partner Olaf Sakkers who jokes around a bit with Alex, Kirsten and Ed before getting into his perspective on the rapidly-evolving mobility technology landscape. 

What is it like running a "full stack" autonomous drive company? What's it like coordinating an AD play with a major automaker? How does an AD company CEO think about "winning the race to autonomy"? On this episode of the Autonocast, the crew is joined by Bryan Salesky of Argo AI, who explains how he got into the space via the DARPA Urban Challenge, and how he and his partners at Ford are moving toward the autonomous future.

With so much focus on companies building the AI "brain" for autonomous drive, we check in with a company that is building a more overlooked (but just as important) aspect of the Autonomobile stack: the nervous system. Chris Heiser and Jason Stinson of Renovo join The Autonocast to talk about what they call "the Autonet," a platform that ties together everything a robotaxi might need to operate, from AI and teleoperation to infotainment and payments and beyond.  

Luminar is one of several exciting new startups shaking up the lidar sensor space, and its founder and CEO Austin Russel joins the show from the headquarters of the Human Driving Association in New York City. Russel explains what sets Luminar's sensors apart from the herd, what lidar needs to be capable of, how lidar sensors can interfere with each other and why Luminar needs to manufacture its own products. Plus, Alex attempts to get him off onto a tangent about laser jamming for speeding purposes. 

Co-host Alex Roy has a new piece out at The Drive, in which he proposes a replacement to the infamous SAE "automation level" system. In this episode the gang discusses his new proposal and some of the feedback it has inspired, which includes some insight into recent debates within the SAE. Also discussed in this week's episode: a UBS study suggesting that Waymo could snag 60% of the autonomous vehicle market, Uber's flying car plans and whether or not autonomous vehicle companies should compete on safety.

With a full plate of news from the autonomous drive sector, the gang digs into Drive.AI's new pilot program, new reporting on Uber's Arizona crash and Bloomberg's ranking of the biggest players in the space. The ranking story prompts a digression into what the "win state" for the much-touted "race to autonomy" even looks like, and whether or not the goal of replacing privately-owned gas cars as "Level 5 mobility devices" even makes sense. Maybe the secret to success is not pursuing a hardware-software stack capable of navigating any and all circumstances, but finding the best locations and business models for commercializing limited autonomous mobility.

As the concept of mobility expands beyond the car and into an explosion of new options, a much bigger question arises: what happens to the built environment that was constructed around cars? To help us explore this question Kirsten and Alex are joined by Andrew Cohen, co-CEO of Gensler, one of the biggest architect firms in the world. From gas stations to parking structures to the very makeup of streets themselves, the new world of mobility opens up huge opportunities to remake the cities of tomorrow.

The big news this week is that Ford is joining Fiat Chrysler in discontinuing its car lineup in order to focus on trucks and SUVs. In order to understand the historical context for this major transition and what it means for the future of the industry, Alex and Ed are joined by a a second Niedermeyer! Paul Niedermeyer, founder and editor of Curbsideclassic.com and Ed's dad is our very special guest for this look at the auto industry in transition.