With conferences being canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Autonocast is proud to host important discussions that were planned for IRL events. On today's episode: Women In Autonomy presents a discussion of AI bias in autonomous vehicle development, featuring Aptiv's Nandita Mangal, Aeye's Indu Vijayan, and NVIDIA's Neda Cvijetic and moderated by Genevieve Smith of the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership.
With its robotaxis already on the road in Arizona, Waymo has been quietly moving toward the autonomous trucking space for some time. To find out more of why the original AV developer is looking at the opportunities in logistics, we spoke with Head of Trucking Boris Sofman. In today's episode, Boris explains how Waymo's two main programs relate to each other, reveals that the safety case is critical intellectual property and briefly discusses his past life building entertainment-focused robots as founder and CEO of Anki.
If we've missed a huge topic within the sprawling world of autonomous drive technology, it's what is happening in China. China is making a huge push into self-driving vehicles, and it's doing so in a very different context from the US, Europe and other markets. On this week's show, we are joined by Jewel Li of the Chinese-based company AutoX, to discuss the differences and similarities between the US and China in terms of both autonomous mobility and new mobility more generally, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Will autonomous vehicles save us from COVID-19? You may have seen some stories that seem to imply that they will, but which fall apart if you poke at them a little. Kirsten, Damon and Ed figure that this is just another part of the broader problems with autonomous drive technology PR, and that how we think and talk about self-driving vehicles need to change. Plus, the Honda-GM EV tie-up occasions the opportunity to discuss what does and doesn't work in auto industry relationships.
On this week's Autonocast discussion episode: Alex denies responsibility for the crash of a tuned supercar in Manhattan, Kirsten reports on mobility tech company layoffs, Ed wonders how many cities are taking this opportunity to reboot their relationships with mobility providers, and Damon maintains his unflappably bemused demeanor.
Because mobility is so foundational to society, rethinking it requires a broad, multidisciplinary approach. As a former EV engineer at GM, a former investor for GM Ventures and the founder and former COO of the autonomous shuttle startup May Mobility, Alisyn Malek has precisely that kind of big-picture perspective. She joins the show to discuss the state of mobility tech, alternatives to VC funding for startups in the space, the challenge of matching product and infrastructure "clock speed" with rapid software innovation and much more.
COVID-19 continues to take its toll, as the gang is a little extra quarantine-drunk in this discussion episode. Alex, Kirsten, Damon and Ed jump around between topics as diverse as: Cannonball Runs in the time of COVID, self-disinfecting bikes, the anti-touchscreens-in-cars backlash, cringey Model Y "off-roading" videos, and the emissions standard rollback. Buckle up!
With so much pessimism in the world of autonomous drive technology, we thought we'd highlight a company that has built a solid, customer-focused business around automated vehicles. Nancy Post is the Director of John Deere's Intelligent Solutions Group, and has been working on the agricultural machinery giant's automation systems for decades. She explains how John Deere's automation efforts started, how they have evolved, and where they are going now.
The collapse of Starsky Robotics has been the subject of rumor and speculation in the autonomous drive technology world for months, but now founder Stefan Seltz-Axmacher is ready to set the record straight. He joins The Autonocast to discuss his recent blog post on The Fall of Starsky, the lessons learned from his time running a startup, where the autonomy and trucking spaces are going, and what he's doing next.