Dizzying progress in computer vision is one of the factors that has brought autonomous driving within reach, but as self-driving cars get closer to reality the probabilistic nature of machine learning inference is creating challenges due to the need for extremely high levels of safety. One possible approach to providing a more deterministic "safety checker" in future autonomous drive stacks comes from a company called Outsight, which is developing an active hyperspectral imaging sensor which it calls a "3D Semantic Camera" that holds the promise of (among other things) rapidly classifying objects based on spectral measurements of their material composition... without inference. Outsight co-founder Raul Bravo joins the show to explain how this sensor could be used to solve some of the trickiest perception-level challenges in autonomy, and potentially offer a powerful new tool to autonomous drive system developers.

The Autonocast is just back from LA, where they saw the future of mobility in all its forms... from the ridiculous to the sublime. First up Ed and Alex ask Kirsten for her in-person account of the infamous Tesla Cybertruck reveal, where she battled Youtube influencers for the weirdest new car launch story of the year. Then the gang discusses some of the vehicles they saw at the LA show, wrapping up with an interview Ed and Kirsten did with Ford's Mark Kaufman from the back seat of the Mustang Mach E.

When Intel bought the Israeli computer vision and ADAS company Mobileye for $15 billion, it was a message that the computing and data giant didn't want to miss automated driving the way they'd missed mobile. With over a decade of experience with camera-based automated driving, a leading position in the effort to articulate autonomous vehicle safety and contracts with some of the biggest automakers in the business, Mobileye got Intel into the ADAS and autonomy business in a big way. Intel's Senior Principle Engineer Jack Weast joins the show to explain Intel's approach to integrating the two companies, the relationship between its ADAS and autonomy businesses, the firm's growing safety philosophy and much more.

It's fun to imagine how emerging innovations might shape the future of mobility, but if you want to know how the rubber hits the road you should probably talk to someone in the insurance business. From big data and connected vehicles to managing shared mobility services and understanding autonomous vehicle safety, insurance companies have to turn "the vision thing" into models, predictions and ultimately dollars and cents. To better understand how the insurance business is managing all of these fascinating challenges Alex, Kirsten and Ed sat down with Grady Irey, the Senior Vice President of Data Science and Analytics for the insurance technology company Arity for a fascinating conversation about risk, data, and the future.

With the television debut of Alex's new film APEX: The Secret Race Across America, chronicling his cross-country record-setting run and the history of such automotive insanity, the gang discusses the relevance of high-speed cross country records to emerging technologies. Then the conversation shifts to the emerging "Techlash" which now seems to be breeding enmity for autonomous vehicles, among critics of the high tech sector as well as urbanists and transit advocates. Are these critics right to be suspicious of Silicon Valley's autonomous vehicle development practices? Will AVs help or hurt the causes of urbanism and transit? These questions and many more take center stage as Alex, Kirsten and Ed take on the growing critiques of self-driving technology.

The gang dives back into the world of sensors this week, with a conversation about lidar, autonomous vehicles and surviving the "trough of disappointment" with Angus Pacala of Ouster Lidar. Unlike some other lidar companies, which are a bet on the market for autonomous vehicles, Ouster has taken a diversified approach to the business and now has hundreds of customers in a wide variety of fields. We discuss why that strategy has paid off, how Ouster is validating its sensors, why autonomous vehicles will likely always have lidar, and where the sensor business is headed.

Alex had such a good time talking about his favorite topics with Kelly Funkhouser of Consumer Reports that they almost immediately sat back down and started recording more. Here, for your listening pleasure, is that roughly half-hour of bonus conversation covering a wide range of topics related to human machine interaction in automated driving.